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TRANSLATIONS    OF   EARLY   DOCUMENTS 

SERIES  II 
HELLENISTIC-JEWISH   TEXTS 


THE    SIBYLLINE    ORACLES 

BOOKS   III-V 


THE 

SIBYLLINE    ORACLES 

BOOKS  III-V 


BY   THE 

REV.    H.    N.    BATE,    M.A. 


SOCIETY   FOR   PROMOTING 
CHRISTIAN    KNOWLEDGE 

LONDON:    68,    HAYMARKET,     S.W.  i. 
NEW  YORK:   THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1918 


EDITORS'    PREFACE 

THE  object  of  this  series  of  translations  is  primarily 
to  furnish  students  with  short,  cheap,  and  handy  text- 
books, which,  it  is  hoped,  will  facilitate  the  study  of  the 
particular  texts  in  class  under  competent  teachers.  But 
it  is  also  hoped  that  the  volumes  will  be  acceptable  to 
the  general  reader  who  may  be  interested  in  the  subjects 
with  which  they  deal.  It  has  been  thought  advisable,  as 
a  general  rule,  to  restrict  the  notes  and  comments  to 
a  small  compass ;  more  especially  as,  in  most  cases, 
excellent  works  of  a  more  elaborate  character  are  avail- 
able. Indeed,  it  is  much  to  be  desired  that  these 
translations  may  have  the  effect  of  inducing  readers  to 
study  the  larger  works. 

Our  principal  aim,  in  a  word,  is  to  make  some  diffi- 
cult texts,  important  for  the  study  of  Christian  origins, 
more  generally  accessible  in  faithful  and  scholarly 
translations. 

In  most  cases  these  texts  are  not  available  in  a  cheap 
and  handy  form.  In  one  or  two  cases  texts  have  been 
included  of  books  which  are  available  in  the  official 
Apocrypha;  but  in  every  such  case  reasons  exist  for 
putting  forth  these  texts  in  a  new  translation,  with  an 
Introduction,  in  this  series. 

W.    O.    E.    OSTERLEY. 

G.  H.  Box. 


INTRODUCTION 

I.  THE  SIBYLLINE  TRADITION  IN  GREECE 
AND  ROME. 

IN  the  Hellenic  world,  as  in  that  of  the  Hebrews,  the 
guidance  and  inspiration  of  prophecy  was  always  sought 
and  held  in  veneration.  In  the  great  days  of  Hellas  the 
oracles  played  a  part  in  the  moulding  of  public  policy 
no  less  than  in  the  solution  of  private  problems,  and 
long  after  those  days  had  passed  away  the  popular  re- 
ligion drew  a  constant  stream  of  enquirers  to  the  places 
where  the  counsel  of  God  was  thought  to  be  revealed. 
Oracles  such  as  that  of  Claros  enjoyed  an  enormous 
vogue  as  late  as  the  second  century  A.D. — never, 
indeed,  had  their  popularity  been  greater :  and  it  waned 
only  with  the  decay  of  the  cults  which  nurtured  it. 

In  the  main,  it  is  clear  the  Greeks  believed  firmly 
that  the  inspiration  of  their  oracles  and  seers  was  genuine. 
It  is  true  that  Aristophanes  laughed  at  them  and  parodied 
their  utterances,  and  that  Lucian  in  his  day  found  abun- 
dant material  for  satire  in  the  charlatans  who  made  large 
profit  out  of  the  superstitions  of  a  nerve-ridden  age, 
while  Aristotle  1  treated  inspiration  as  a  form  of  melan- 
choly ;  yet  the  mind  of  Hellas  was  more  truly  repre- 
sented by  Plato  2  and  Plutarch,3  both  of  whom  spoke 

1  Ar.  Probl.  30.  I. 

2  Plat.  Phcedr.  244  b.     The  Sibyl  and  others,  like  the  oracles  of 
Delphi   and    Dodona,    fj-avritcfi   xpAnevoi    ti>6e(p  iroAA.^  8$j   iroAAori 
irpo\4yovT€s  els  TO  fj,4\\ov  &p8toj(rat>. 

3  Plut.  flfe  Pyth,   Or.  398  c,  an  interesting  discussion,   where  a 


8  INTRODUCTION 

of  the  oracles  and  the  Sibyl  with  genuine  religious 
respect. 

The  oracles,  strictly  so  called,  were  always  consulted 
through  the  official  medium  of  the  priests  who  had  charge 
of  them;  but  there  were  also  less  official  sources  of 
revelation ;  voices  to  be  heard  in  caverns  where  sub- 
terranean springs  gave  forth  mysterious  sounds,  or  from 
the  rush  of  the  wind  through  trees ;  in  such  places  the 
earliest  "  Sibyls  "  had  their  home,  and  could  be  consulted 
by  any  who  chose  to  approach  them  :  or  rather,  through 
them  the  people  could  seek  counsel  of  Apollo,  to  whom 
their  inspiration  was  always  ascribed. 

The  Sibylline  tradition,  then,  took  its  origin  from 
a  side-stream  of  oracular  inspiration.  According  to 
Rohde  (Psyche,  vol.  ii.  pp.  62  f.)  one  must  also  infer  that 
between  the  eighth  and  sixth  centuries  B.C.,  when  the 
enthusiastic  cult  of  Dionysus  was  taking  settled  form, 
there  were  wandering  prophets  in  Hellas,  unattached  to 
any  local  habitation ;  men  and  women  subject  to  ecstatic 
possession,  gifted  with  second  sight,  who  played  a  part 
analogous  to  that  of  the  prophets  of  early  Christian 
history.  The  Cassandra  of  the  Agamemnon  is  just  such 
a  figure.  She  corresponds  closely  to  the  earliest  de- 
scription of  a  Sibyl,  found  in  a  fragment  of  Heraclitus  ; l 
her  utterance  is  wild,  harsh  and  uncouth  :  her  message 
is  full  of  unwelcome  truths  and  forebodings  of  disaster  ; 
it  is  like  that  of  Micaiah  the  son  of  Imlah,  or  that  of 
the  seer  in  the  Iliad  z  to  whom  it  was  said  at«  TOL  TO. 

sceptical  interlocutor  urges  that  if  one  foretells  all  possible  disasters 
some  of  the  predictions  are  sure  of  fulfilment,  but  against  this  it  is 
maintained  that  the  Sibyl  is  too  accurate  in  respect  o(  place  and 
time  to  be  disposed  of  in  this  way. 

1  In  Plutarch,  de  Pyth.  Or.  561.     '2ifiv\\a,  Se  paivo/jL^ixp  ffrdfjiart, 
naff  '  \lpd.K\firov,  aye\airra  «ol  a.Ka.\\<airiffTa.  KO.\  afivpiffra  < 

Xi\(a>v  fr&v  QtKVf'iTa.i  rfj  <f>o>i'fj  5ia  TOV  Oe&v. 

2  Homer,  lliadt  i.  106. 


INTRODUCTION 


KO.K  CCTTI  <£iXa  (frpeal  fj.avT€VfcrOaL.  It  is  with  such  sooth- 
sayers, 2t/&>AAai  x  /cat  Ba/aScs,  and  with  casual  utterances 
gradually  collected  and  handed  down  in  ever-increasing 
number,  that  the  Sibylline  tradition  begins. 

The  first  of  the  Sibyls,  according  to  the  general  belief, 
was  one  Herophile,  described  now  as  the  daughter, 
sister  or  wife  of  Apollo,  now  as  the  child  of  a  fisherman 
and  a  nymph  ;  she  came  from  the  Troad  to  Delphi  before 
the  Trojan  war,  "in  wrath  with  her  brother  Apollo," 
lingered  for  a  time  at  Samos,  visited  Glares  and  Delos, 
and  died  in  the  Troad,  after  surviving  nine  generations  of 
men.  After  her  death  she  became  a  wandering  voice 
which  still  brought  to  the  ears  of  men  tidings  of  the 
future  wrapped  in  dark  enigmas.2 

Two  places  claimed  to  be  the  birthplace  of  Herophile, 
namely  Marpessos  in  the  Troad  and  Erythrse.  The 
Erythrseans  based  their  claim  on  an  alleged  utterance 
of  the  Sibyl  —  irarpis  8e  fj.oi  I(TTLV  'EpvOprj  —  while  the 

1  The  traditional  derivation  of  the  word  3lfiv\\a  is  given  by 
Varro  (ap.  Lact,  Inst.  i.  6,  7)  who  refers  it  to  the  /Eolic  <TJOS  (6fi6s) 
and  &6\\a  (&ov\-f))  :  "  itaque  Sibyllam  dictam  esse  quasi  6to&ov\i)v.  " 
Modern  philologists  regard  this  as  improbable.  Gruppe  (Griech. 
Mythologie,  p.  927)  thinks  the  word  Phoenician  or  Arabic  in  origin, 
and  equivalent  to  "possessed  by  God."  Nestle,  (Berl.  Philol. 
Wochenschr.  1904,  pp.  764—6)  advances  with  hesitation  a  conjecture 
based  upon  a  theory  of  Schlirer's  (Die  Prophetin  Isabel  inThyatira, 
in  Theol.  Abhandlungen  Weizsacker  gewidmet,  pp.  39  ff).  In 
Thyatira  there  was  a  'S.a^ddfiov,  a  shrine  of  Sambethe  the  Chaldean 
Sibyl  (C.7.  <7.  3509):  Schiirer  suggests  that  the  Jezebel  or  Isabel 
of  Rev.  ii.  20  was  the  local  prophetess  of  this  shrine,  and  Nestle 
proceeds  to  guess  that  Isabel  and  Sibyl  are  originally  one  and  the 
same  word.  More  scientific  and  less  hazardous  is  the  view  of  Dr. 
Postgate  (American  Journal  of  Philology,  iii.  333  f.),  who  traces 
2i'£uAAa  to  a  root  <n£  —  (t/3),  akin  to  <ri&-6s,  sap-iens,  and  seen 
in  such  proper  names  as  SiBvpras,  etc.,  and  the  diminutive  termin- 
ation —  v\Xo  :  it  will  thus  mean  "the  wise  little  woman"  ;  cf.  our 
wizard,  from  witan,  and  the  Latin  saga,  prsesagus,  praesagium. 

a  In  Plut.  de  Pyth.  Or.  loc.  cit.  The  tradition  is  mentioned  that 
the  Sibyl  went  to  the  moon  and  is  still  visible  there,  as  a  human 
face. 


io  INTRODUCTION 

Marpessians  asserted   that  their  rivals  had  suppressed 
a  line  of  the  true  text,  which  ought  to  read  thus  :  — 

Trorpis  Se  /AOI  etrriv 
/xr^rpos  iepr],  TTOTCI/AOS  8'  ' 


Marpessos  proved  to  be  too  insignificant  to  uphold  its 
claim,  and  thus  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  usurped  and 
retained  the  first  place  in  tradition  as  the  earliest  and 
greatest  of  all  Sibyls.  So,  for  instance,  Lactantius  says 
\de  Ira  Dei,  22,  4)  that  all  ancient  authorities  "prseci- 
puam  ac  nobilem  praeter  ceteras  Erythrseam  fuisse 
commemorant."  x 

It  is  probable  that  Sibylline  vaticination  was  practised 
in  many  localities  ;  by  the  time  of  Varro  2  ten  Sibyls  had 
been  enumerated,  and  other  authorities  (see  Alexandre, 
App.  to  Exc.  I)  give  other  lists  and  numbers  :  but  the 
literary  tradition  of  the  Sibyl  begins  with  only  one. 
Heraclitus,  Aristophanes,  Plato  and  Plutarch  refer  to  the 
Sibyl  in  the  singular,3  and  Tacitus  (Ann.  vi.  12)  doubts 
whether  the  singular  or  the  plural  is  the  proper  number 
to  employ. 

It  is  clear  from  Aristophanes  that  some  sort  of  Sibyl- 
line literature  was  current  in  Greece  in  the  fifth  century 

1  Erythrae  continued  to  glory  in  its  borrowed  distinction  down  to 
a  late  period.     Buresch    has  published    (Mittheilungen  des  k.d. 
Archdol.    Instituts,  Athenische  Abtheilung  XVII.)  a  dedicatory  in- 
scription of  the  time  of  M.  Aurelius,  in  which  the  Sibyl  says  iron-pis 
8'  OVK  &\\ri,  /JLOVV^I  Sf  fjiol  iffTiv  'EpvBpal,  and  rejoices  that  after  900 
years  of  wandering  life  she  is  back  again  in  her  home,  to  see  the 
fulfilment  of  her  prophecy  that  Erythrse  would  once  more  flourish. 

2  Varro  ap.  Lact.  Inst.  i.  6,  7-12.     Varro's   ten    Sibyls  are  — 
the   Persian,  Libyan,    Delphic,  Cimmerian,    Erythraean,    Samian, 
Cumaean,  Hellespontian,  Phrygian  and  Tiburtine. 

8  So  does  Pausanias  as  a  rule,  though  in  X.  xii.  he  enumerates 
four  Sibyls,  one  without  a  name  (?  the  Libyan),  Herophile,  the 
Cumaean,  and  the  Jewish.  But  he  may  be  dependent  on  some 
other  source  at  this  point  :  see  Frazer's  note  ad  loc. 


INTRODUCTION  n 

B.C.1  But  the  Roman  portion  of  the  Sibylline  story 
takes  the  literature  back  to  a  considerably  earlier  date. 
It  was  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  B.C.  that  one  of 
the  Tarquins,  probably  Tarquinius  Superbus,  " canonized" 
such  Sibylline  oracles  as  he  was  wise  enough  to  purchase, 
and  had  them  laid  up  in  the  Capitol.  Nine  books,  it  is 
said,2  were  offered  to  him  by  an  old  woman  from 
Cumse,  at  the  price  of  300  gold  pieces ;  at  the  end  of 
the  bargaining  the  vendor  had  burnt  six  out  of  the  nine, 
and  was  able  to  secure  the  original  price  in  full  for  the 
remaining  three.  Now  these  books  were  brought  indeed 
from  Cumae,  where  there  was  (in  later  times,  at  any 
rate)  a  Sibylline  cave  and  oracle;  but  they  were  not 
of  Cumsran  origin :  Cumae,  tradition  says,  produced  no 
written  oracles.  The  "Cumseum  carmen"  was  in  fact 
simply  the  "  Erythraean "  collection,  *.  e.  all  that  was 
believed  in  the  sixth  century  to  be  the  work  of  the  chief 
and  original  Sibyl. 

The  installation  of  the  Sibyllines  on  the  Capitol  was 
an  event  of  first-rate  importance  in  the  religious  history 
of  Rome.  It  was  the  work  of  the  first  Roman  ruler  who 
solemnly  consulted  the  Delphic  oracle,  and  it  proved  to 
be,  if  not  the  beginning  and  sole  cause,  at  least  an  early 
and  potent  factor  in  the  Hellenizing  of  Roman  religion.3 
New  deities,  new  forms  of  old  deities,  new  cults,  new 
methods  of  propitiation,  new  festivals  and  observances 
were  introduced  on  the  authority  of  the  sacred  canon 
thus  imported.  A  college  of  officials,  Duumvirs  at  first, 
Quindecimvirs  later,  was  appointed  to  have  charge  of 
the  documents,  and  two  assistants  at  least  were  always 


He  refers  to  it  with  mingled  sarcasm  and  respect.     ffi&v\\iav, 
like  ftaKifciv,  means  "to  talk  oracular  nonsense." 

2  Dion.  Hal.  iv.  62. 

3  Marquardt  and  Mommsen,  Staatsaltertumer,  vi.  336  ff. 


12  INTRODUCTION 

provided  who  had  a  knowledge  of  Greek.1  The  oracles, 
it  would  seem,  were  constantly  studied,  but  were  never 
"consulted"  or  "approached"  except  by  express  order  of 
the  State.  Their  use  appears  to  have  been  twofold : 
they  were  consulted  in  times  of  danger,  for  predictions 
and  warnings,2  and  on  the  occurrence  of  unprecedented 
portents  or  disasters,  for  the  discovery  of  appropriate 
rituals  of  propitiation. 

The  existing  Sibylline  books,  having  passed  through 
the  hands  of  Jewish  and  Christian  editors,  naturally 
retain  no  traces  Of  such  ritual  injunctions  as  it  was  the 
business  of  the  Quindecimvirs  to  discover.3  Indeed  it 
appears  that  even  in  the  Roman  books  the  expected 
answers  were  by  no  means  found  lying  on  the  surface. 
The  method  of  consultation  was  elaborate  and  artificial. 
One  account  of  it  avers  that  a  line  was  chosen  at 
random,  and  an  acrostic  was  made,  with  the  letters 
composing  this  line  as  the  "  lights " :  verses  beginning 
with  the  appropriate  letters  were  then  discovered  in  the 
oracles  and  perhaps  composed  for  the  occasion.  If  this 
account  is  even  approximately  correct,4  it  is  clear  that 

1  The  Sibyllines  were  not  the  only  books  under  their  charge. 
Together  with  them  the  libri  fatales  of  Veii,  the  utterances  of 
Begoe  the  Etruscan  prophetess,  the  "  sortes  "  of  Albunea  of  Tibur, 
and  (after  213  B.C.)  the  carmina  Marciana  formed  the  collection 
known  as  the  libri Jatales. 

a  Cf.  Cicero,  de  Div.  i.  43,  98  et  in  Sibyllinis  libris  esedem  repertse 
prsedictiones  sunt ;  Livyiii.  10,  7  libri  .  .  .  aditi :  pericula  aconuentu 
alienigenarum  pnedicta  .  .  .  inter  cetera  monitum  ut  seditionibus 
abstineretur. 

3  Hence  Augustine  was  able  to  say  (de  Civ.  Dei,  xvm.  xxiii.)  that 
the  Sibyl  "  nihil  habet  in  toto  carmine  suo  .  .  .  quod  ad  deorum 
falsorum  sive  fictorum  cultum  pertineat,  quin  immo  .  .  .  etiam 
contra  eos  et  contra  cultores  corum  loquitur. ' 

*  This  is  based  on  Alexandre's  interpretation  (Exc.  III.  xvi. 
p.  232)  of  Cic.  de  Div.  ii.  54  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Dionysius  of 
Halicarnassus  (iv.  62),  writing  about  30  B.C.,  says  that  the  oracles 
had  already  suffered  from  interpolations  and  that  the  interpolations 


INTRODUCTION  13 

the  Quindecimvirs  were  in  a  fortunate  position.  The 
Sibyl  was  venerated,  and  she  could  be  made  to  say  what 
they  thought  desirable.  However,  it  is  probable  that  a 
certain  amount  of  ritual  prescription  was  actually  found 
in  the  text  of  the  books.  The  god  or  goddess  connected 
with  a  particular  calamity  would  often  be  named,  and  in 
such  cases  it  would  be  easy  to  find  precedents  to  direct 
the  Quindecimvirs  towards  the  appropriate  ceremony  : 
moreover,  Aristophanes  certainly  found  ritual  injunctions 
and  political  warnings  in  his  text  of  the  Sibyl,  for  these 
are  the  things  that  he  parodies  :  his  Sibyl  declares  when 
peace  should  and  should  not  be  made,  and  when  it  is 
proper  to  sacrifice  a  white  ram  to  Pandora.1 

In  8 1  B.C.  the  buildings  on  the  Capitol,  with  their 
contents,  were  destroyed  by  fire ;  but  so  great  was  the 
importance  attached  to  the  sacred  deposit  of  the  libri 
fatales  that  five  years  after  the  fire  a  commission  was 
sent  out  to  renew  the  collection.  The  commissioners 
made  enquiry  for  Sibylline  verses  in  Italy  and  abroad, 
especially  at  Erythrae,2  and  were  able  to  bring  together 
about  1000  lines  as  the  genuine  words  of  the  Sibyl. 

Thus  from  76  B.C.  onwards  the  Roman  collection  con- 
sisted of  lines  which  had  been  found  to  be  in  general 
circulation ;  some  of  them  were  taken  from  public  col- 
lections, and  some  copied  down  from  popular  oral  tradi- 
tion.3 No  doubt  many  of  these  were  accepted  as  having 

could  be  detected  "by  means  of  the  so-called  acrostics,"  which 
may  mean  that  an  acrostical  oracle  was  likely  to  be  spurious.  Yet  it 
may  mean  exactly  the  reverse  of  this  ;  the  Christian  author  of  Book 
viii.  inserted  (217-250)  an  acrostic — of  which  the  initial  letters  are 
IH2OT2  XPEI2TO2  0EOT  TIO2  2TATPO2,  and  one  does  not  see 
why  he  should  have  chosen  to  do  this  unless  the  acrostical  form 
was  commonly  a  mark  of  genuineness. 

1  Aristophanes,  Peace,  1074  ff. ;  Birds,  967  ff. 

z  Dion.  Hal.  iv.  62  ;  Tac.  Ann.  vi.  12. 

*  irap'  ivSpwv  IStwrav,  Dion.  Hal.  loc.  cit. 


i4  INTRODUCTION 

had  a  place  in  the  books  destroyed  by  the  fire;  but 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  on  the  one  hand  the  work 
of  the  commission  stimulated  both  the  production  of 
new  and  the  adaptation  of  old  Sibylline  matter,  and  that 
on  the  other  the  Quindecimvirs  had  to  sift  out  a  con- 
siderable mass  of  spurious  oracles  ;  x  for,  as  will  be  seen, 
more  than  one  collection  was  by  this  time  in  existence 
which  owed  its  origin  to  propagandist  literary  efforts, 
Jewish  and  Pagan. 

Further  efforts  were  made  both  by  Augustus  and  by 
Tiberius  to  secure  the  purity  and  the  authority  of  the 
Sibylline  canon.  During  the  arrangements  for  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Ludi  Saeculares  in  17  B.C.  Augustus  had 
the  oracles  re-copied  ;  2  and  on  assuming  the  dignity  of 
Pontifex  Maximus  five  years  later  he  caused  a  large  mass 
of  spurious  or  unauthorized  oracles  to  be  burnt,  retaining 
only  those  of  the  Sibyl  :  these  he  placed  in  gilded  cases 
in  the  temple  of  Apollo  on  the  Palatine.3  Tiberius, 
disturbed  by  a  popular  prophecy  of  the  approaching  end 
of  the  empire,  set  on  foot  a  similar  critical  enquiry,  which 
resulted  apparently  in  some  enlargement  of  the  official 
collection  as  well  as  in  the  destruction  of  some  spurious 
or  worthless  matter.4 

It  is  needless  to  follow  further  the  story  of  the  Roman 
Sibylline  canon,5  nor  indeed  is  it  directly  connected  with 

1  Tac.  Ann.  vi.  12,  dato  .  .  .  sacerdotibus  negotio  quantum 
humana  ope  potuissent  vera  discernere. 

1  Dio  Cass.  liv.  17.  *  Suet.  Aug.  31. 

4  Dio  Cass.    Ivii.    18,   nal    TO.   /3<jSA.fa    trdvra    TO.   /j.avTflav    nva 
fafffKftyaTO,   Kal    rb,    fjitv    us    ovSevds    &£ia  oirt'/cpive,    TO.    St 


6  The  books  were  not  often  consulted  under  the  empire.  As 
one  would  expect,  they  were  not  left  undisturbed  by  Julian  ; 
Symmachus,  as  befitted  a  patrician  deeply  loyal  to  the  old  religion, 
held  the  office  of  Quindecimvir  in  377  A.D.  ;  but  in  the  reign  of 
Honorius,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  the  books  were  burnt 
by  order  of  Stilicho. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

that  of  the  Jewish-Christian  books.  But  its  indirect  in- 
fluence was  considerable.  The  official  adoption  of  the 
Sibyl  by  Rome  herself,  and  the  atmosphere  of  awe  and 
secrecy  with  which  her  oracles  were  surrounded,  lent  to 
her  name  and  words  a  prestige  which  it  would  be 
difficult  to  over-estimate;  Rome  completed  and  sealed 
with  imperial  authority  the  process  of  canonization  which 
had  begun  in  the  folk-lore  of  Hellas.  Hence  came,  in 
large  measure,  the  temptation  to  utilize  for  purposes  of 
propaganda  a  name  so  venerable.  Since  the  Sibyl  was 
a  prophetess,  any  prophecy  could  safely  be  ascribed  to 
her  without  fear  of  disproof;  since  she  was  so  eminent 
and  so  ancient,  any  prophecy  which  could  gain  currency 
under  her  name  was  sure  of  eager  and  widespread 
acceptance. 

It  should  be  added  also  that  the  Roman  tradition 
enriched  the  world  with  one  poem  which  has  had  a 
higher  and  more  enduring  influence  upon  literary  history 
than  all  the  Sibylline  verses  taken  together — the  Fourth 
Eclogue  of  Vergil ; 1  it  was  that  prophecy  of  a  new  age 
and  a  blessed  birth,  inspired  partly  by  the  earlier  Jewish 
Sibyllines  (/'.  e.  by  part  of  our  Book  III.),  partly  also,  it 
may  be,  by  direct  acquaintance  with  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
which  won  for  Vergil  his  place  in  Christian  thought  as 
a  herald  of  the  Incarnation. 

II.  THE  JEWISH-CHRISTIAN   ORACLES. 
A.   The  Extant  Books. 

THE  Oracula  Sibyllina  now  extant  consist  of  twelve 
books,  numbered  I.-VIII.  and  XI.-XIV.  This  numera- 

1  See  Vergifs  Messianic  Eclogue,  by  Conway,  Warde  Fowler 
and  Mayor ;  also  Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay  in  The  Bearing  of  Recent 
Research  on  the  Trustworthiness  of  the  New  Testament,  pp.  319- 
350. 


16  INTRODUCTION 

tion,  however,  does  not  represent  the  contents  or  order 
of  any  actual  MS.,  but  is  the  result  of  a  fusion  of  three 
types  of  text,  and  is  adopted  merely  for  convenience' 
sake,  (i)  In  1545  Sixtus  Birken  (Betuleius)  published 
Books  I.-VIII.  485  from  a  MS.  (P)  then  at  Augsburg, 
now  at  Munich.  (2)  In  1599  there  appeared  (post- 
humously) an  edition  by  Johannes  Koch  (Opsopoeus), 
based  on  a  Paris  MS.  (R),  which  contained  the  whole 
of  Book  VIII.,  but  placed  it  at  the  beginning  of  the 
collection.  (3)  In  1817  and  1828  Angelo  Mai  was  able 
to  add,  from  one  MS.  at  Milan  and  two  in  the  Vatican 
(a)  Book  XIV.,  with  VI.-VII.  i  and  VIII.  218-428, 
and  (6)  Books  XI.-XIV.,  with  IV.,  VI.-VII.  i,  VIII. 
218-428  (numbered  together  as  Book  IX.),  and  VIII. 
1-9  (numbered  as  Book  XV.);  the  text  of  IV.,  VI., 
and  VIII.  representing  a  different  recension  from  those 
previously  published. 

The  present  editions  number  the  first  eight  books  as 
they  stood  in  the  editio  princeps^  and  XI.-XIV.  as  in 
the  MSS.  discovered  by  Mai.  But  (2)  and  (3)  differ 
considerably  in  order  from  (i).  (i)  begins  with  a  pro- 
logue, towards  the  end  of  which  comes  the  note  /2i/3A.iov 
d  7rc/3i  TOT)  avdpxov  Oeov;  our  Books  I.  and  II.  follow  as 
Aoyos  Trpwros.  (2)  has  III.  as  Xoyo?  Trpwros,  I.  and  II. 
as  Sevrepos,  III.  as  T/H'TOS  (or  reTapros)  IV.  as  Terapros  (or 
TTt/ATrros);  while  in  (3)  IV. -VII.  i,  VIII.  218-428  appear 
together  as  Book  IX.,  and  VIII.  1-9  as  a  fragment  of 
Book  XV.  That  is  to  say,  the  compiler  of  (3)  aimed  at 
completeness  and  achieved  disorder;  his  Book  IX.  is 
a  masterpiece  of  confusion.  He  made  a  collection  of 
fifteen  books— it  may  be  that  he  had  fifteen  Sibyls  in 
mind  as  their  authors — and  fortunately  used  a  relatively 
good  type  of  text.1  He  preserves  to  us  four  books  the 

1  The  textual  problems  of  Or.  Sib.  will  not  be  discussed  here. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

interest  of  which  is  largely  political :  XI.,  Christian 
book  based  on  V.  1-51  and  somewhat  later  in  date  than 
226  A.D.;1  XII.,  a  Jewish  writing  of  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander Severus,  edited  by  a  Christian  hand ;  XIII.,  a 
Christian  book  earlier  than  265  A.D.,  and  XIV.,  also 
Christian  but  not  earlier  than  the  fourth  century. 

Books  I.-VIII.  contain  all  the  earlier  matter,  and 
nearly  all  that  is  of  specifically  religious  interest.  III.-V., 
the  earliest  of  all,  must  be  described  later  in  some  detail. 
VI.  and  VII.  are  both  probably  of  the  second  century 
A.D.,  and  are  interesting  documents  tinged  with  heresy. 
VIII.,  which  contains  the  famous  acrostic,  and  was  used 
by  Com  median  and  Lactantius,  comes  from  the  bitter 
time  of  persecution  about  180  A.D.  or  earlier.  I.  and  II. 
are  Jewish,  with  Christian  interpolations,  some  of  them 
from  Book  VIII. ;  the  Jewish  basis  being  possibly  as 
late  as  the  third  century  A.D. 

The  patristic  quotations  coincide  quite  clearly  with 
the  internal  evidence  of  the  text  as  to  the  general 
questions  of  date.  Down  to  Clement  of  Alexandria  the 
certain  quotations  are  limited  to  III.,  IV.  and  V.,  with 
one  or  two  possible  allusions  to  VIII.,  and  frequent  use 
of  two  fragments,  which  appear  in  Theophilus  of  Antioch 
as  the  "  procemium  "  of  the  Sibyl,  and  probably  stood  at 
one  time  at  the  beginning  of  III.  Commodian  confines 
himself  mainly  to  VII.,  and  Lactantius  makes  full  and 

It  will  be  enough  to  say  that  there  are  three  types  of  text  corre- 
sponding to  the  three  collections  described  above.  (3),  The  text 
of  Mai's  discoveries  is  usually  indicated  by  the  letter  XI,  and  is 
mperior  to  *,  the  text  of  type  (l),  and  to  %  that  of  type  (2),  where 
t  can  be  compared  with  them.  *  tends  to  give  better  readings 
than  ¥,  but  the  state  of  the  text  as  a  whole  compels  the  critic  to 
live  from  hand  to  mouth  ;  no  general  principles  can  be  applied  to 
such  a  mass  of  error  and  corruption. 

1  These    datings   are   taken   without   prejudice   from    Geffcken, 

r.u.  pp.  3  iff. 

B 


i8  INTRODUCTION 

copious  use  of  the  Books  III.-VIII.,  with  the  prooemium 
of  Theophilus  and  one  or  two  fragments. 

B.  Origin  of  the  Jewish  Collection. 

In  the  third  and  second  century  B.C.  the  Judaism  of  the 
Dispersion  found  itself  in  close  and  manifold  contact  with 
Hellenism.  To  the  Alexandrian  Jew  the  Hellenic  world 
was  both  a  friend  and  an  enemy.  He  was  attracted,  in- 
fluenced, enriched  by  its  wisdom,  its  poetry,  its  history  : 
he  was  challenged  and  repelled  by  its  religion  and  (apart 
from  the  kindred  influence  of  Stoicism)  by  its  morals. 
The  problem  then  arose  how  a  Greek-speaking  Jew  could 
best  maintain  his  place  in  two  worlds  so  strangely  diverse 
as  those  of  Zion  and  Hellas  :  how  he  could  commend  his 
own  faith  and  practice  to  the  Greeks  whose  intellectual 
life  he  shared,  and  uphold  their  authority  and  prestige 
over  against  the  cults  and  traditions  of  Hellas.  In 
answer  to  these  problems  there  came  into  being  a  con- 
siderable literature  in  which  the  names  of  Greek  authors 
were  used  with  a  freedom  which  would  now  be  considered 
less  than  honest.  The  works  or  fragments  so  produced 
had  one  of  two  motives  always,  and  sometimes  both  :  the 
propagation  of  the  Jewish  faith  and  the  enhancing  of  the 
credit  and  status  of  Judaism.  History  was  represented 
by  a  pseudo-Hecatseus,  poetry  by  spurious  verses  attri- 
buted to  Orpheus,  Homer,  Hesiod,  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles, 
Philemon,  Menander.  Orpheus  was  made  to  recant  his 
polytheism  and  proclaim  the  one  true  God :  Sophocles 
to  foretell  the  end  of  the  world  by  fire  and  the  future 
blessedness  of  the  righteous.  All  this  was  merely  a 
forcible  entry  upon  the  heritage  of  the  Hellenes ;  the 
major  premiss  underlying  it  was  the  genuine  conviction 
that  the  creed  of  revelation  was  in  fact  older  and  truer 
than  the  wisdom  and  worship  of  the  Greek.  The  Jewish 


INTRODUCTION  19 

"forgers"  doubtless  felt  themselves  to  be  merely  re- 
writing Greek  literature  as  it  ought  to  have  been 
written. 

The  fashion  of  pseudonymous  propaganda  having 
once  been  set,  it  would  have  been  astonishing  if  the 
Jews  had  failed  to  utilize  and  appropriate  the  Sibyl.  In 
the  age  of  the  Maccabees,  if  a  book  of  "  Daniel "  was 
needed  to  confirm  the  faith  and  hope  of  the  saints,  a 
book  of  the  Sibyl  was  almost  postulated  as  a  necessity  to 
vindicate  that  hope  among  the  unbelieving.  The  motive 
for  producing  it  was  overwhelming.  Other  Greek  teachers 
had  already  appeared,  and  found  acceptance,  in  a  Jewish 
garb ;  here  was  the  oldest  of  Greek  prophets,  venerated 
throughout  the  Graeco-Roman  world  :  her  prophecies 
existed  in  no  fixed  form  or  dimension ;  the  tone  and  key 
of  her  utterances  was  closely  akin  to  that  of  Hebrew 
prophecy,  and  especially  to  that  of  the  more  recent 
prophets,  with  their  insistence  on  a  catastrophic  vindica- 
tion of  God ;  she  spoke  of  the  downfall  of  cities  and 
empires,  of  blood  and  disaster.  It  was  well  worth  while 
to  enlist  such  an  ally  on  the  right  side. 

Further,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Jews  were 
not  the  first  to  utilize  the  Sibyl  in  this  way.  One  may 
doubt  whether  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  herself,  with  her 
claim  to  be  older  than  Homer,1  and  to  have  supplied  the 
material  from  which  he  plagiarized  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey, 
was  entirely  above  suspicion.  And  the  Babylonian  Sibyl, 
Sabbe  or  Sambethe,  on  whose  work  part  of  our  Book  III. 
is  based,  was  certainly  a  creature  of  literary  artifice.2  Her 
author  (who  came  to  be  known  as  her  father)  was 


1  Cf.  Or.  Sib.  III.  420  ff. 

2  She  came,  however,  to  have  a  local  habitation :  outside  Thya- 
tira  there  was  a  2,a/j.&ddftoy  ev  T(f  Xa\$aiov   irepip6\cf,  C.I.G.  3509  : 
see  Ramsay  in  Hastings'  D.B.  art.  Thyatira. 


20  INTRODUCTION 

Berosus,  a  priest  of  Bel ;  he  desired  (exactly  like  any 
Alexandrian  Jew)  to  show  that  his  own  people  and 
religion  were  far  superior  in  antiquity  and  authority  to 
Greece  and  her  gods.  A  contemporary  of  Euhemerus 
(at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.),  he  welcomed  the 
theory  which  treated  the  gods  of  Olympus  as  deified 
mortals,  and  incorporated  this,  together  with  Babylonian 
traditions  of  the  beginning  of  things,  in  the  book  of  the 
"  Babylonian  Sibyl."  It  is  probable  also  that  he  either 
wrote  or  borrowed  a  considerable  mass  of  prophetic 
narrative  relating  to  (and  hostile  to)  Alexander  the 
Great. 

Conceive,  then,  an  Alexandrian  Jew,  about  160  B.C., 
in  whose  hands  is  a  work  already  accepted  as  Sibylline, 
but  containing — in  a  pagan  form,  of  course — the  stories 
of  the  Deluge  and  the  Tower  of  Babel,  together  with  a 
rationalistic  handling  of  Greek  religion.  What  Berosus 
had  begun,  the  Jew  could  not  fail  to  continue.  A  few 
touches  only  were  needed  to  expunge  the  polytheism  of 
the  Berosian  stories :  the  rest  could  be  incorporated 
en  bloc. 

This,  it  would  seem,  was  actually  the  way  in  which 
Book  III.,  the  earliest  of  the  Jewish  Sibyllines,  began  to 
take  shape.  The  elements  composing  it  (as  it  now 
stands)  are  as  follows  : — (i)  matter  from  the  Babylonian 
Sibyl  and  the  Alexander-story  (?  =  the  Persian  Sibyl); 
(2)  Hellenic  oracles  of  various  dates  from  the  Erythraean 
collection;  (3)  Jewish  oracles  from  the  time  of  the 
Maccabees  onwards ;  (4)  Christian  additions  and  altera- 
tions. All  these  diverse  materials  are  strung  together 
without  any  recognizable  plan  or  sequence.  Those  who 
compiled,  enlarged,  and  edited  the  collection  felt,  doubt- 
less, that  the  spirit  of  the  Sibylline  tradition  could  best 
be  maintained  by  avoiding  all  semblance  of  method ; 


INTRODUCTION  21 

the  character  which  the  Sibyl  had  to  maintain  was  that 
of  a  frenzied  seer,  and  not  that  of  a  literary  artist.1 

Books  IV.  and  V.  are  less  confused  and  confusing  than 
Book  III.  They  contain  a  certain  amount  of  ancient 
and  miscellaneous  matter,  and  some  late  additions ;  but 
the  substance  of  them  belongs  in  the  main  to  one  short 
period,  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century  A.D.,  and  there- 
fore, although  they  exhibit  no  kind  of  sequence,  they 
are  easier  to  understand  than  the  wildly  heterogeneous 
collection  which  precedes  them. 

I  have  attempted  to  supply  a  conjectural  indication  of 
date  for  each  section ;  but  the  reader  should  be  warned 
that  no  two  editors  will  be  found  to  be  in  entire  agree- 
ment as  to  dates  or  sources.  References  to  the  works 
named  in  the  bibliography  will  enable  him  to  correct  or 
verify  the  tentative  conclusions  at  which  I  have  arrived. 


C— BOOKS   III.   IV.   AND   V. ;  ANALYSIS   AND 
PROBABLE   DATES. 

(i)  Book  IIL 

In  Book  III.  1-45  is  Jewish,  Egyptian,  and  of  un- 
certain date.  A  similar  but  more  elaborate  proclamation 
of  monotheism  is  found  in  Theophilus  of  Antioch  (II. 
36) — the  editors  print  it  as  fragments  I.-III. — and  said 
by  him  to  have  stood  lv  apxy  T^S  *pofar&is>  Lac- 
tantius  quotes  this  as  "  Erythraean " :  and  with  him 
"Sibylla  Erythraea"  means  Book  III.  Blass  (in 
Kautzsch,  Apokr.  und  Pseudepigr.  des  a.  T.'s,  vol.  ii.)  cuts 

1  This  may  be  illustrated  from  the  sixth-century  Prologue  to  the 
Oracles  (86  ff.),  where  it  is  said  that  the  crudities  and  obscurity  of 
the  verse  are  due  to  the  shorthand-writers  who  took  down  the 
oracles  as  they  were  uttered,  but  were  too  clumsy  to  keep  up  with 
the  Sibyl's  dictation,  or  too  ignorant  to  understand  it. 


22  INTRODUCTION 

out  1-45  and  substitutes  the  procemium  of  Theophilus ;  I 
agree  that  this  would  represent  the  text  as  Lactantius 
found  it,  but  think  that  our  1-45  represents  an  earlier 
form,  for  which  the  more  sophisticated  lines  of  the 
procemium  were  substituted  some  time  in  the  second 
century  A.D. 

46-62  is  Jewish,  and  not  earlier,  I  think,  than  30  B.C.  : 
possibly  53  ff.  may  be  an  addition  as  late  as  79  A.D. 

In  63-92  and  93-96  we  have  probably  a  Christian 
hand  of  the  latter  part  of  the  first  century,  A.D. 

97-154  is  from  the  Babylonian  Sibyl.  Passages  from 
the  same  source  dealing  with  the  Deluge  will  be  found 
in  I.  230-256. 

156-210  is  confused:  but  it  contains,  among  other 
matter,  a  clear  Jewish  oracle  on  Rome  from  the  time  of 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  with  later  touches;  from  211-294, 
however,  we  have  a  fairly  continuous  account  of  the 
Jews  and  their  fortunes  to  the  end  of  the  exile,  dating 
from  the  later  Maccabean  period. 

The  Jewish  oracles  on  Babylon,  Egypt,  Gog  and 
Magog,  and  Libya  in  295-333  can  hardly  be  dated,  but 
334-336  appears  to  refer  to  the  "Julium  sidus"  of  44  B.C., 
and  there  are  reasons  for  assigning  a  late  date  to  319-333. 

337-349  is  a  patch  of  Hellenic  oracles  ;  350-355,  a 
Greek  oracle  from  Asia  Minor,  belongs  to  the  period  of 
the  Mithridatic  wars. 

356-362  and  363-380  are  Jewish  oracles  against  Rome, 
and  can  only  be  dated  by  conjecture.  They  may  belong 
to  the  time  of  Pompey,  63  B.C.,  and  it  is  just  possible 
that  in  372  there  is  a  Christian  touch. 

381-387  comes  from  the  Alexander-oracles,  and  the 
view  adopted  here  of  the  difficult  lines  388-400  is  that 
this  is  a  passage  from  the  same  source,  recast  to  suit  the 
time  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 


INTRODUCTION  23 

401-432  is  Erythraean,  and  433-488  is  Hellenic  and 
ancient  for  the  most  part,  but  444-448  may  come  from 
the  Mithridatic  period,  while  464-473  deals  with  the 
Social  War  and  Sulla. 

With  492-503  we  revert  to  the  Maccabaean  stratum. 
In  504-519  the  only  indication  of  date  (508  ff.)  takes  us 
to  the  second  century  B.C.  ;  and  for  520-572,  oracles 
against  Hellas,  we  have  a  choice  between  the  Roman 
conquest  of  Greece  in  146  B.C.  and  the  miserable  epoch 
of  Sulla's  campaigns,  551-553  suggesting  perhaps  the 
earlier  date. 

573-651  dates  itself  as  not  earlier  than  the  time  of  the 
seventh  Ptolemy,  /'.  e.  the  middle  of  the  second  century, 
B.C.  ;  and  the  remainder  of  the  book  has  been  assigned 
to  a  similar  date. 

But  I  am  not  without  misgivings  as  to  many  parts  of 
the  last  300  lines.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  stood  in 
their  present  shape  in  the  text  of  Lactantius.  He  is 
always  careful,  in  quoting  Book  III.,  to  refer  to  it  as 
"Sibylla  Erythraea";  but  III.  545  and  547  ff.  are  cited 
by  him  without  specifying  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  (Inst.  i. 
15, 15)  and  652-3  are  definitely  assigned  to  "alia  Sibylla," 
i.e.  to  some  other  book  than  the  third  (Inst.  vii.  18,  7). 
Combining  this  fact  with  the  close  resemblances  which 
are  found  between  the  eschatology  of  this  section  and 
that  of  Book  V.,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  in  any  case 
this  part  of  the  book  was  remodelled  in  the  middle  of 
the  first  century  A.D.  A  Christian  hand  appears  in 
776. 

The  book  closes,  Sog-end,  with  a  brief  but  involved 
epilogue,  in  which  the  Sibyl  identifies  herself  with  the 
Babylonian  and  the  alleged  Erythraean,  and  claims  to  be 
the  daughter-in-law  of  Noah. 


24  INTRODUCTION 

(2)  Book  IV. 

It  is  a  relief,  after  the  intricate  disorder  of  Book  III., 
to  turn  to  the  comparative  unity  and  simplicity  of  Book 
IV.,  which  dates  as  a  whole  from  a  time  not  long  after 
the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  79  A.D.  That  disaster  is 
clearly  described  (130-136),  as  is  also  the  earthquake  at 
Laodicea  in  76  A.D.  (107-8),  while  the  legend  of  Nero's 
disappearance  and  expected  return  has  already  taken 
shape  (76-79,  117-124,  137-139).  An  atmosphere  of 
distress  and  gloom  pervades  the  book,  with  expectations 
of  judgement.  It  is  pessimistic  even  with  regard  to 
the  "  godly  "  :  yet  it  looks  forward  to  a  better  age  on 
this  earth  when  the  doom  has  been  wrought  out.  Zahn 
believes  the  writer  to  have  been  an  Asiatic  Jew  domiciled 
in  Italy;  but  there  is  about  as  much  reason  (72-75)  for 
placing  him  in  Egypt. 

The  book  opens  with  a  prologue  (1-23),  and  a  procla- 
mation of  the  righteousness  of  Judaism  and  the  coming 
doom  of  its  enemies  (24-48).  49-114  gives  a  broken 
sketch  of  world-history  from  Assyria  to  Hellas,  Mace- 
donia and  Rome,  interrupted  by  a  reference  to  Nero 
(76-79),  and  containing  some  miscellaneous  Hellenic 
oracles  ranging  in  date  from  an  ancient  oracle  already 
found  in  Strabo  (97-8)  to  76  A.D.  (107-8).  115-139 
deals  with  Rome  and  the  Jews,  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius, 
and  Nero's  expected  return.  140-151  are  Hellenic 
oracles,  of  which  149-151  may  be  as  late  as  76  A.D. 

From  152  to  the  end  of  the  book  we  have  a  prophecy 
of  moral  collapse,  judgement,  destruction,  resurrection 
and  restoration. 

(3)  Book   V. 

The  whole  spirit  and  tone  of  Book  V.  stands  in  strong 
contrast  with  that  of  IV.  IV.  is  serious,  melancholy  and 


INTRODUCTION  25 

quiet :  V.  is  passionate  and  visionary,  alike  in  its  hatred 
of  Rome,  in  its  pictures  of  vengeance  and  restoration,  and 
in  its  treatment  of  the  mythical  figure  of  the  returning 
Nero.  V.  even  abandons  the  tense  and  form  of 
prophecy,  so  vivid  are  its  visions,  and  speaks  both  of 
the  ruin  of  Jerusalem  and  of  the  coming  of  the  Restorer 
as  already  accomplished  (398,  408,  414). 

The  dating  and  analysis  of  the  book  have  given  rise 
to  considerable  divergences  of  opinion.  We  may  here  be 
content  to  take  Zahn 1  and  Geffcken  as  representing  the 
chief  divergence,  the  former  holding  that  three  different 
hands  are  traceable  throughout  the  book,2  the  latter, 
whose  main  conclusions  I  have  adopted,  regarding  it  (with 
the  exception  of  1-51)  as  a  unity.  The  evidence  of 
language,  metre  and  mood  appears  to  me  to  lend 
adequate  support  to  Geffcken's  view. 

In  1-51,  then,  we  have  a  sketch  of  the  emperors  down 
to  M.  Aurelius,  from  a  Jewish  hand.  It  is  strangely 
favourable  to  Hadrian,  but  I  see  no  reason  for  regarding 
5 1  as  an  interpolation,  and  am  therefore  unable  to  accept 
Zahn's  view  that  1-49  stand  apart  as  the  work  of  a  Jew  in 
the  early  part  of  Hadrian's  reign,  when  the  Jews  are  said 
to  have  hoped  that  Hadrian  would  restore  the  temple. 

After  51,  if  we  subtract  the  Christian  touches  and  the 
relics  of  Hellenic  prophecy  embedded  in  the  book,  the 
rest  will  be  found  to  express  one  mood,  one  indignation 
and  one  hope.  To  a  Christian  source  we  may  without 
hesitation  refer  256-259  :  possibly  also  62-71,  and  also, 

1  In  Zeitschr.  filr  khchliche  IVissenschaft,  vol.  vii.  1886,  pp.  37  ff. 

1  Zahn  discerns  in  V.  the  work  of — A.  a  Jew  of  about  74  A.  D.  ; 
B,  a  second  Jew,  less  fierce  than  A,  of  the  time  of  Hadrian  ;  and  C,  a 
Christian  interpolator  and  redactor.  His  analysis  is  as  follows  : — A, 
111-178,  200-205,  228-246,  361-433,  484-531  ;  B,  i-49a,  sob,  52- 
no,  179-199.  206-227,  247-360,  434-483;  C,  49*,  5ob,  51,  257, 
413,  and  perhaps  other  lines. 


26  INTRODUCTION 

I  am  inclined  to  think,  228-246.*  Hellenic  are  lines 
115-136  :  186-7  are  also  clearly  ancient :  Hellenic  sources 
may  underlie  287-327,  though  a  Jewish  hand  is  also 
traceable,  333-5  and  336-7  are  also  from  an  old  tradition  ; 
464  ff.  goes  back  to  the  inroad  of  the  Gauls  into  Asia  and 
Greece  in  280  B.C. 

That  the  Jew  who  wrote  the  rest  of  the  book  was 
an  Egyptian  is  unmistakably  clear.  In  52-92  we  have 
prophecies  of  ruin  on  Memphis  and  other  Egyptian 
cities:  in  179-199  a  group  of  oracles  on  Egypt  and  Cyrene  : 
a  word  against  Egyptian  paganism  in  279?.,  an  Egyptian 
prophecy  in  458-463,  and  from  484-511  an  idealistic 
picture  of  the  downfall  of  Serapis,  the  conversion  of  his 
servants  to  the  true  God,  and  the  erection  of  a  true 
temple  in  Egypt.  Thus  the  whole  texture  of  the  book 
is  interwoven  with  Egyptian  threads. 

Its  main  themes  are  simple :  lamentation  over  the 
destroyed  temple,  burning  indignation  against  "  Babylon," 
the  city  of  evil-doers,  thirst  for  vengeance ;  visions  of  the 
end,  with  its  woes  and  its  conflict  with  the  forces  of  Nero- 
Antichrist  ;  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  and  the  restor- 
ation of  God's  people  to  their  proper  and  promised 
blessedness. 

The  book  was  written  (apart  from  1-51)  after  the 
death  of  Titus  (411-413)  but  at  a  time  when  the  legend 
of  his  sudden  extinction  had  already  found  acceptance ; 
and  it  exhibits  the  Nero-legend  in  a  developed  form, 
with  wilder  features  than  those  found  in  Book  IV. 
These  indications  give  no  ground  for  precise  calculation ; 
nor  do  I  believe  that  any  safe  deduction  can  be  drawn  from 
the  allusions  to  the  Parthians  in  93  ff.,  439  ff. ;  "  Parthia  " 
in  this  book  has  already  lost  touch  with  history  and  taken 

1  I  am  in  accord  here  with  Geffcken,  though  I  do  not  accept  his 
treatment  of  the  apostrophe  to  S/Spu  :  see  note  ad  loc. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

on  the  character  of  the  mythical  enemy  of  the  people  of 
God.  One  would  however,  be  on  safe  ground  in  assigning 
the  book  to  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  century  A.D.,  and 
in  classing  it  with  the  Apocalypse  of  Baruch  and  II.  (IV.) 
Esdras :  it  is  inspired  by  the  same  tragic  passion  as  the 
latter,  though  falling  far  below  it  in  nobility  of  thought 
and  utterance. 

III.  DOCTRINE  AND  ESCHATOLOGY  OF  III.-V. 

(a)  THE  two  and  a  half  centuries  which  elapsed  while 
the  earliest  Jewish  Sibyllines  were  taking  their  present 
shape  saw  many  and  various  developments  in  the  sphere  of 
eschatological  teaching :  hence  it  is  possible  to  illustrate 
Bks.  III.-V.  on  this  side  from  Jewish  literature,  and 
especially  from  apocalyptic  literature,  of  every  date,  but 
it  is  not  possible  to  put  together  a  coherent  account  of 
the  Sibylline  eschatological  teaching;  so  it  must  suffice 
to  indicate  the  main  themes  which  occupy  the  writers  of 
the  various  parts.  On  the  other  hand,  these  centuries 
saw  little  radical  change  in  the  main  elements  of  primitive 
doctrine.  "  The  belief  in  the  one  invisible  spiritual  God, 
who,  Himself  uncreated,  has  called  out  from  himself 
this  visible  creaturely  woild,  is  the  supreme  essential  in 
the  mission  preaching  of  Hellenistic  Judaism."1  This 
is  also  the  chief  dogmatic  burden  of  the  Sibyllines. 
They  return  again  and  again  to  the  proclamation  of 
monotheism  and  the  denunciation  of  idolatry  (III.  7-35, 
545  ff.,  586  ff.,  604  ff.,  629;  IV.  6-17,  24-39;  v-  75ff-> 
276  ff,  353  ff-,  403  ff). 

The  transcendent  God  whom  they  preach  is  ineffable 
as  well  as  invisible  (III.  18-19),  an(^  tne  Sibyllines 
illustrate  the  prevailing  tendency  of  Hellenistic  Judaism 

1  Bousset,  R.J.,  296. 


28  INTRODUCTION 

to  substitute  periphrases  and  synonyms  for  the  Divine 
Name.1  Over  against  the  moral  defilements  of  heathen- 
ism, and  its  sexual  laxity  in  particular  (III.  36-45,  184  ff., 
762  ff. ;  IV.  25-39  ;  V.  386  ff.,  429  ff.),  is  set  in  contrast 
the  purity,  kindness  and  brotherliness  of  the  Jewish  way 
of  life  (III.  219-247,  591-600).  Here  and  there  is  seen 
a  trace  of  the  influence  of  Stoicism  (e.g.  communism  the 
law  of  nature,  III.  247  ;  KOIVOS  VO/AOS,  III.  757),  which 
also  supplied  some  of  the  imagery  connected  with  the 
catastrophic  end  of  the  world.2 

These  Jewish  prophets,  so  intense  in  their  hatred  of 
paganism,  are  not  all  without  hope  for  the  pagan  world. 
They  call  Hellas  to  repentance  (III.  545-561),  though 
sure  that  repentance  will  not  come  till  doom  has  been 
inflicted  (570 ff.):  they  appeal  to  heathendom,  though 
sure  that  the  appeal  will  not  be  heard  (IV.  162-178). 
Yet  they  have  visions  of  the  conversion  of  the  world :  of 
a  time  when  the  one  true  temple  will  draw  the  peoples  to 
join  its  worship  and  its  praises  (III.  616  ff.),  and  when  the 
linen-clad  priests  of  Serapis  will  bring  oblations  to 
Jehovah  in  a  new  Egyptian  temple  (V.  492-506). 

(b}  The  eschatology  of  IV.  and  V.  is  relatively  simple, 
since  the  books  supply  clear  internal  evidence  of  their 
date;  and  the  references  in  the  notes  will  perhaps 
suffice  to  show  how  closely  they  are  related  to  the  other 
apocalyptic  literature,  Jewish  and  Christian,  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  first  century  A.D.  'In  Book  IV.  the  great 
sign  of  the  end  is  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  with  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  the  decay  of  godliness  (117, 
152),  and  the  disappearance  and  expected  return  of 

1  Cf.  Bousset,  R.  J.,  pp.  305  ff. 

2  Especially  the  idea  of  a  world  conflagration,  which  the  Stoics 
held,  would  consume  all  things  and  prepare  for  a  recurrence  of  the 
whole  of  history.     See,  e.g.>  V.  512,  note. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

Nero.  At  the  end  there  is  to  be  a  great  and  universal 
conflagration  (152-161) ;  after  this  a  resurrection  of  the 
body  (179  ff.)  and  a  general  judgement.  Those  whom 
the  judge  condemns  will  go  into  gloom  beneath  the 
earth  (43,  184-6),  while  the  righteous  will  live  on  earth 
again  in  blessedness. 

Book  V.  is  more  vivid  than  IV.  but  not  dissimilar  to 
it.  One  point  of  difference  is  that  in  V.  the  Messianic 
King,  absent  from  IV.,  reappears  (105  ff.,  414  ff.) :  he  is 
to  come  from  the  heavens,  to  destroy  the  enemies  of 
God's  Kingdom,  to  restore  what  the  adversaries  have 
pillaged,  and  to  set  up  the  new  and  perfect  temple  on 
earth.  The  sphere  of  his  rule  is  to  be  terrestrial.  But 
before  he  comes  the  woes  of  the  last  days  have  to  be 
endured :  first,  the  wars  of  the  great  adversaries  of  the 
Messiah,  the  Parthians1  and  their  king  (101  ff.),  which 
will  end  in  glory  and  peace  for  the  Jews  (247-255) ; 
then  the  conflagration,  with  tumult  and  war  among 
the  heavenly  bodies  (206  ff.,  512  ff.).  Parallel  and 
presumably  identical  in  essence  with  these  pictures,  are 
those  connected  definitely  with  Babylon-Rome.  Babylon 
is  to  be  burnt — a  great  star  will  be  the  sign — together 
with  Italy  and  the  sea,  and  then  Rome  is  to  be  judged 
(155-160).  A  world-wide  war  is  to  bring  the  return  of 
Nero- Antichrist,  who  will  reign  in  power  and  earthly 
wisdom  (220  ff.,  361  ff.) ;  but  portents  and  devastations 
sent  from  heaven  (298-305,  377  ff.)  will  set  an  end  to  his 
rule  and  usher  in  the  reign  of  peace,  which  will  be  a 
period  of  fruitfulness  and  plenty  for  the  righteous  upon 
this  earth  (281-5),  where  the  new  temple  is  to  be  built 
in  glory  (422-7). 

In  Book  III.,  however,  the  dating  is  all  conjectural, 

1  In  some  passages  the  Ethiopians  take  the  place  of  the 
Parthians  (205  if.,  504  ff.,  see  note  on  III.  319). 


30  INTRODUCTION 

and  the  dates  of  the  earliest  and  the  latest  Jewish  matter 
are  separated  by  more  than  two  centuries.  An  attempt 
has  been  made  in  the  notes  to  indicate  which  books  of 
the  Apocalyptic  literature  supply  the  closest  parallels  to 
each  passage;  but  I  have  not  presumed,  for  the  most 
part,  to  treat  the  eschatological  data  as  affording  precise 
evidence  of  date. 

Here  as  in  the  other  books  we  have  the  signs  of  the 
end,  the  woes  and  wars  of  the  end,  the  enemies  of  the 
Kingdom,  the  Antichrist,  the  Messianic  King,  the  judge- 
ment, the  great  conflagration,  and  the  new  age;  while 
the  Hellenic  oracles  of  destruction  appear  to  be  scat- 
tered broadcast  as  emphasizing  the  general  predictions 
of  coming  doom.  Among  the  signs  may  be  mentioned 
the  great  comet  (333  ff.),  the  visions  of  fiery  swords  in 
heaven  (673 ff.)  and  of  warring  hosts  in  the  sky  (796 ff.). 
There  is  to  be  a  universal  war  (632  ff.),  an  uprising  of 
Gog  and  Magog  (319  ff.),  a  time  of  dearth  (539  ff.,  647  ff.), 
and  after  the  great  fire  (80  ff.,  54  ff.,  543,  690),  or  the 
destruction  of  Babylon  (303  ff.),  the  new  age  will  come  :  a 
time  of  peace  and  plenty  on  this  earth  (in  one  passage 
(658  ff.)  this  golden  age  appears  to  be  doubled — it  comes 
both  before  and  after  the  Judgement).  The  heathen  will  be 
converted  (702  ff.)  and  the  wicked  burnt  up  (741  ff.).  It 
will  be  the  work  of  the  Messianic  King  (46  ff.,  95,  286  ff., 
652  ff.)  to  judge  the  world  and  execute  sentence,  to 
make  a  perpetual  end  to  war  (653),  to  restore  the  temple 
to  its  full  splendour  (657  ff.,  288)  and  to  reign  among 
men  for  ever  (49  f.). 

When  the  eschatological  passages  of  Book  III.  are 
compared  as  a  whole,  and  even  line  by  line,  with 
those  of  IV.  and  V.,  they  convey  the  impression  of 
lateness.  It  is  true  that  the  author  of  V.  may  have 
borrowed  freely  from  III.,  yet  it  seems  to  me  that  in 


INTRODUCTION  31 

many  passages  of  III.  a  situation  similar  to  that  of  V. 
is  presupposed.  The  king  of  Book  III.,  like  that  of  V., 
is  to  restore  the  temple;  desecration  of  the  temple  is 
imminent  in  III.  660  ff. ;  the  enemies  of  God  are  to  be 
judged  for  attacking  the  temple  in  III.  687.  It  may  be 
urged  that  all  this,  or  much  of  it,  might  have  been 
written  in  the  Maccabsean  times,  or  even  in  those  of 
Pompey.  Yet  when  the  passages  are  taken  in  the  mass 
they  do  not  suggest  those  epochs.  It  looks,  indeed,  as  if 
the  oracles  had  been  often  worked  over.  Thus  we  have 
in  III.  248-285  a  history  of  Israel  from  the  Exodus  to 
the  Exile ;  then,  in  286,  comes  a  reference  to  the  restora- 
tion ;  yet  the  restorer  is  not  Cyrus,  but  the  Messiah,  King 
and  Judge.  In  301  we  return  to  Babylon — but  this 
time  it  is  of  Babylon-Rome,  and  not  of  the  historical 
Babylon,  that  the  Sibyl  speaks.  This  is  a  fairly  clear 
case  of  the  re-modelling  of  an  early  passage  to  suit  the 
circumstances  and  hopes  of  a  later  period.1  And  if 
beneath  the  main  eschatological  passages  of  Book  III. 
there  lies  an  early  substratum,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  it  was  carefully  worked  over  in  the  middle  of  the 
first  century  A.D. 


IV.— THE  SIBYLL1NES  IN  EARLY  CHRISTIAN 
LITERATURE. 

As  we  have  seen,  it  was  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  who 
were  the  first  after  Berosus  to  adopt,  adapt  and  amplify  the 
Sibylline  oracles  for  the  purpose  of  their  own  religion. 
From  about  160  B.C.  to  the  end  of  the  ist  century  A.D. 
they  continued  to  utilize  them,  nor  did  they  entirely 

1  The  interpretation  adopted  of  III.  388  ff.,  if  it  be  correct,  gives 
another  instance. 


32  INTRODUCTION 

cease  to  do  so  till  two  centuries  later.  But  the  Sibyllines 
were  destined  to  pass  almost  entirely  out  of  Jewish 
hands.  They  were  not  retained  among  the  apologetic 
weapons  of  Rabbinic  and  Talmudic  Judaism  :  and  if 
this  was  due  in  part  to  the  deep  cleavage  which  divided 
Judaism  from  Hellenism  after  the  revolt  of  Bar-Cochba, 
it  was  in  larger  measure  due  to  the  whole-hearted  adop- 
tion of  the  Sibyl  by  Christian  apologists,  and  the  addi- 
tions made  by  Christian  writers  to  the  Sibylline 
literature. 

It  may  be  that  the  Christian  use  of  the  oracles  began 
with  the  formation  of  a  body  of  testimonia  from  this  and 
similar  sources;  testimonia  collected,  like  those  from  the 
Old  Testament,1  to  bear  witness  partly  to  the  primary 
doctrines  of  monotheism  and  ethical  purity,  and  partly 
to  the  anticipations  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Cioss 
which  could  be  discerned  in  pre-Christian  prophecy. 
The  frequent  appeals  in  early  Christian  literature  to 
"  the  Sibyl  and  Hystaspes  "  point  in  this  direction ;  and 
it  has  been  suggested  that  the  proxmium  of  Theophilus 
was  derived  from  some  such  anthology  of  witness.  But 
the  Christian  re-touching  of  the  oracles  began  at  an 
early  date,  very  possibly  in  the  first  century  A.D.  ;  and 
in  the  middle  of  the  2nd  century  Celsus  was  able2  to 
tax  the  Church  with  the  deliberate  forgery  of  spurious 
oracles,  while  Lucian's  parodies3  are  clearly  aimed  at 
Christian  Sibyllists :  in  the  story  of  the  impostor  Pere- 
grinus,  who  became  a  Christian  and  an  dp^io-waywyevs, 
we  read  that  he  not  only  made  a  reputation  as  an 
interpreter  of  Christian  /3t/3A.ia,  but  "  some  of  them  he 
also  wrote  himself." 

1  See  Rendel  Harris,  Testimonia. 

2  Orig.  c.  Cels.  v.  61,  vii.  56. 

8  Lucian,  de  morte  Peregrini,  29,  30;  Alexander,  II. 


INTRODUCTION  33 

The  Christian  Apologists  accepted  in  entire  good  faith 
the  existing  Hellenic  and  Jewish  tradition,  and  had  no 
doubts  as  to  the  reality  of  the  Sibyl's  inspiration.  Justin 
Martyr1  names  Hystaspes,  the  Sibyl,  and  the  prophets 
in  the  same  breath.  Athenagoras 2  quotes  from  Book  III., 
fortifying  himself  with  a  reference  to  Plato.  In  Theo- 
philus  of  Antioch  more  than  eighty  lines  are  cited.  His 
appeal  is  explicit :  "  The  prophets  spoke  concerning  the 
creation  of  the  world  and  all  other  things,  for  they  fore- 
told famines,  plagues  and  wars ;  and  there  were  not  one 
or  two  only,  but  a  number  of  them  at  various  times 
among  the  Hebrews ;  moreover,  among  the  Greeks  there 
was  the  Sibyl :  and  these  all  gave  consenting  and  harmo- 
nious testimony  both  of  things  before  and  during  their 
own  time,  and  of  things  which  are  now  coming  to  pass 
among  us ;  wherefore  we  believe  that  as  the  former 
things  have  been  fulfilled,  so  it  will  be  in  respect  of  the 
future."3  To  Clement  of  Alexandria  the  Sibyl  is  a 
prophetess,  divinely  taught  (evfo'ws  <r<£dSpa),  "  one  of  our 
own  poets";4  she  sang  at  God's  behest,  as  Heraclitus 
says.  "Just  as  God  gave  the  prophets  because  He 
willed  the  salvation  of  the  Jews,  so  He  raised  up  the 
noblest  of  the  Hellenes  as  prophets  befitting  their  own 
way  of  speech,  in  so  far  as  they  were  able  to  receive  the 
good  gift  of  God,  and  separated  them  from  common 
men."  Origen  is  only  concerned  to  refute  what  he  holds 
to  be  the  calumny  of  Celsus,  that  there  are  Christian 
2t/3v\AioTcu',5  by  challenging  Celsus  to  produce  ancient 
copies  of  the  oracles  in  which  the  Christian  passages  are 
not  to  be  found.  He  does  not  follow  Clement  in  quoting 
the  Sibyl  herself. 

Yet  Celsus  was  right,  and  it  would  seem  that  Greek 

1  Apol.  I.  44.  2  Leg.  30.  3  ad  Autol.  II.  3,  36. 

4  Strom.  VI.  v. ;  Protr.  ii.,  viii.,  etc.         &  c.  Cels.  vii.  56. 
C 


34  INTRODUCTION 

Christianity  came  to  recognize  the  fact.  Down  to  Origen 
and  Hippolytus1  the  Greek  use  of  the  Sibyl  was  con- 
tinuous; and  Book  VIII.,  a  composition  of  the  3rd 
quarter  of  the  second  century,  was  doubtless  the  work  of 
a  Catholic  Christian;  but  the  later  Christian  books  are 
tinged  with  heresy,  and  it  would  seem  that  in  the  East 
the  Sibylline  tradition  passed  off  into  the  backwaters  of 
Christian  life  :  it  recurs  in  the  Apostolic  Constitutions, 
and  (very  fully)  in  the  pseudo-Justinian  Cohortatio  ad 
Gracos,  but  for  the  rest  its  only  home  is  in  the  regions  of 
strange  speculation  and  popular  superstition.  The  great 
fathers  of  the  fourth  century  ignore  it  altogether. 

In  the  West  the  history  of  eschatological  doctrine  and 
apocalyptic  literature  took  a  different  course,  and  the 
longer  survival  of  the  Sibyl  amon^  the  Latin  communi- 
ties is  only  one  instance  of  the  general  divergence. 
Tertullian  follows  the  Greek  apologists  in  giving  a  high 
place  to  the  Sibyl.  She  is  older  than  all  literature : 
her  evidence  is  the  "  testimonia  divinarum  literarum." 2 
He  is  followed  by  Arnobius  and  Commodian,  and,  above 
all,  by  Lactantius.  In  the  seven  books  of  the  Divina 
Institutiones,  one  of  the  series  of  polemical  and  apolo- 
getic works  which  we  may  regard  as  precursors  of  the 
De  Civitate  Dei,  Lactantius  relies  throughout,  with  im- 
plicit confidence,  on  the  testimony  of  the  Sibyl.  His 
armoury  contains  some  strange  weapons — pseudo-Orphic 
verses,  oracles  of  Apollo,  relics  of  the  pseudo-Hystaspes, 
quotations  from  Hermes  Trismegistus.  To  the  last  of 
these  he  attributes  almost  divine  authority  ;3  but  the 
Sibyl  stands  higher :  her  witness  is  directly  inspired 

1  de  Christo  et  Antichristo,  52. 

2  Ad.  Nat.  II.  12  ;  Apol.  19. 

3  Inst.  i.  6,  I,  unum  proferam  quod    est  simile  divino,  et  ob 
nimiam   uetustatem  et  quod  is  quern  nominabo  ex  hominibus  in 
deos  relatus  est. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

by  God,1  he  quotes  it  in  the  same  breath  as  that  of 
Isaiah  and  the  Books  of  Kings.2  Lactantius  is  aware 
that  the  purity  of  the  Sibylline  text  has  been  assailed : 
to  assert  that  Christians  have  tampered  with  the 
oracles  is  the  common  refuge  of  those  who  cannot 
refute  their  witness.  Yet,  he  argues,  Cicero  and  Varro 
and  others  who  died  before  the  advent  of  Christ  refer 
to  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  and  others,  from  whose  books 
we  take  our  quotations.  All  that  we  find  in  them  stood 
there  in  Varro's  time,  and  long  before,  but  it  could  not 
be  understood  before  it  was  fulfilled  in  the  Incarnation : 
and  that  is  why  the  Sibyl  was  thought  to  be  insane  and 
untruthful.3  What  the  Pagans  did  not  understand  we 
can  interpret :  we  can  prove  that  the  revelation  of  mono- 
theism stood  in  their  own  sacred  books — that  it  was  the 
teaching  of  Apollo  himself.4 

An  interesting  comment  on  this  attitude  of  Lactantius 
comes  from  the  East,  from  Gregory  of  Nazianzus.5  It 
is  true,  he  says,  that  Hermes  and  the  Sibyl  are  ostensibly 
on  the  side  of  the  Cross :  yet  they  are  not  inspired ;  they 
have  merely  borrowed  from  the  Bible.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  influence  of  Lactantius  is  clearly  seen  in  one 
of  Constantine's  Declamations,  the  Oratio  ad  Sanctorum 
Coetumf  in  which  the  acrostic  of  Book  VIII.  is  quoted  at 
length,  the  authority  of  the  Sibyl  is  defended  in  Lactan- 
tian  terms,  and  the  IVth  Eclogue  is  brought  in  as  a 
prophecy  of  the  Church  {nova  progenies)  and  the  Christ, 
derived  from  Sibylline  sources.  Further,  it  is  to  Lactan- 
tius, clearly,  that  the  Sibyl  owes  her  place  among  the 

1  #.,  nunc  ad  divina  testimonia  transeamus ;  IV.  23,  4,  sed  nos 
ab  humanis  ad  divina  redeamus.     Sibylla  dicit  haec,  etc. 

2  ib.t  iv.  13,  21.  3  ib.t  iv.  15,  26-31. 

*  /'£.,  i.  7,  I.  *  Carm.  II.  vii.  245  ff. 

8  Appended  to  Eus.,  de  Vita  Constantini. 


36  INTRODUCTION 

children  of  the  City  of  God.1  Augustine,  it  is  true, 
quotes  the  acrostic  in  a  rough  Latin  version  from  a 
source  which  is  independent  of  Lactantius,  but  the 
remainder  of  his  reference  to  the  Sibyl  is  taken  directly 
from  the  Divine  Institutes,  That  he  ever  made  any 
independent  use  of  the  oracles  is  improbable ;  and  the 
favourable  judgement  of  the  dt  Civitate  Dei  is  toned 
down  elsewhere.2  Augustine  does  not  rank  the  Sibyl 
with  the  prophets  of  the  Church,  nor  attribute  to  her  any 
authority  of  her  own. 

Yet  the  name  of  Augustine,  and  the  lesser  fame  but 
more  copious  quotations  of  Lactantius,  sufficed  to  sustain 
the  reputation  of  the  Sibyl  in  Latin  Christianity.3  The 
Greek  collections  of  oracles  were  entirely  unknown  in 
the  West ;  but  the  tradition  which  originated  with  them 
lived  on  until  in  the  middle  ages.  Their  place  was  sup- 
plied by  a  stream  of  forgeries,  a  stream  which  continued  to 
flow  down  to  the  nineteenth  century.4 

Of  the  mediaeval  Sibyls  and  of  the  place  of  the  Sibyl 
in  Christian  art  this  is  not  the  place  to  write.  Nor  can 
we  follow  the  traces  of  the  Sibyl  in  the  East.  What  one 
would  like  to  know  is  how  it  came  about  that  any  MSS. 
of  the  oracles  survived  at  all,  and  what  was  the  cause  of 
the  revival  of  interest  in  them  which  led  to  their  being 
recognized  and  recopied  in  the  fourteenth  century,  which 
is  the  date  of  the  earliest  extant  manuscripts. 

1  Aug.  ae  Civitate  Dei,  xviti.  23. 

2  Contra  Faustum  Manichaum,  xiii.  I  and  15. 

3  Yet  that   reputation  varied.     In  the  Dies   Irae,  for  the  line, 
"  Teste  David  cum  Sibylla,"  an  alternative  version  existed  :  "  Crucis 
expandens  uexilla." 

*  Geffcken  in  Preussische  Jahrbucher,  1901,  p  214. 


INTRODUCTION  37 


V.  NOTE   ON   THE   NERO-LEGEND. 

THE  birth  of  Nero,  like  that  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
was  believed  to  have  been  marked  by  portents  indicating 
his  more  than  human  descent  and  his  high  destiny.1 
The  news  of  his  death  gave  rise  to  strange  rumours.2 
Nero,  strange  to  say,  was  not  universally  hated.  Half 
a  century  after  his  death  it  could  be  said  that  "  even  at 
this  time  all  men  long  that  he  may  be  alive  "  (Dio  Chrys. 
Or,  xxi.).  Possibly  there  was  in  many  minds  a  doubt 
whether  he  had  really  died  :  and  the  doubt  was  suffi- 
ciently general,  as  early  as  69  A.D.,  at  the  time  of  Otho's 
accession,  to  tempt  a  pretender  to  appear  on  the  strength 
of  it  (Tac.  Hist.  ii.  8,  9).  Although  his  body  was 
brought  to  Rome,  to  discredit  his  pretensions,  he  was 
followed  by  one,  if  not  also  by  a  second,  imitator.  It  is 
not  quite  clear  whether  the  second  impostor  appeared 
about  80  A.D.  under  Titus,  and  the  third  eight  years  later 
under  Domitian,  or  whether  the  second  and  third  were 
one  and  the  same.  Zonaras  (in  Dio  Cass.  LXVI.  ii., 
see  also  Suet.  Nero,  57)  tells  the  story  of  one  Terentius 
Maximus,  an  Asiatic,  who,  trading  on  his  personal  re- 
semblance to  Nero,  and  on  the  fact  that  like  Nero  he 
was  a  musician,  collected  a  following  in  Asia  and  moved 
towards  the  Euphrates,  gathering  support  as  he  went. 
He  then  took  refuge  with  the  Parthian  king  Artabanus, 

1  Cf.  Sib.  V.  140,  and  contrast  146.     Suet.,  Nero  6,  dc  genitura 
eius  statim  multa  et  formidolosa  multis  coniectantibus.     According 
to  Dio,  LXI.  2,  strange  and  supernatural  lights  were  seen  at  his 
birth. 

2  A  parallel  case  is  that  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  it  was  a  popular 
belief  for  centuries  that  he  had  not  died.     As  late  as  the  end  of 
the  second  century  A.D.  a  pseudo-Alexander,  trading  on  this  super- 
stition,   headed    a    Dionysiac    procession !  from    the    Danube    to 
Byzantium  (Dio  Cass.,  LXXIX.  18). 


38  INTRODUCTION 

who  was  so  impressed  by  his  claims,  and  so  pleased  to 
have  a  tangible  ground  for  attacking  Titus,  that  he 
almost  declared  war  against  Rome,  in  order  to  reinstate 
the  alleged  Nero  on  his  throne. 

It  seems  probable  that  Terentius  Maximus5  adventure 
was  designed  to  work  along  the  lines  of  an  already  exist- 
ing expectation,  /'.  e.  that  Nero  would  re-appear  from  the 
far  East :  for  the  Nero-legend,  as  it  appears  in  Or.  Sib. 
Book  V.,  appears  to  date,  in  some  if  not  in  all  of  its  main 
features,  from  the  time  of  Vespasian.  A  significant 
passage  is  V.  222-4,  which  must  be  read  together  with 
a  passage  in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  (IV.  4).  Nero  is 
to  "  cut  off  three  heads  from  among  ten  horns  " ;  "  ten 
kingdoms,"  says  Barnabas,  "  shall  reign  upon  the  earth, 
and  after  them  shall  rise  up  a  little  king,  who  shall  lay 
low  three  of  the  kings  in  one."  In  like  manner  Daniel 
saith  concerning  the  same  :  "  And  I  saw  the  fourth  beast, 
wicked  and  strong  and  untoward  beyond  all  the  beasts  of 
the  earth,  and  how  that  ten  horns  sprang  out  of  it,  and 
out  of  them  as  it  were  a  little  horn  as  an  offshoot  (-n-apa- 
<£va8iov,  cf.  7rapa(f>v6fji€vov  Kcpas,  Of.  Sib,  III.  400),  and 
how  that  it  laid  low  three  of  the  great  horns  in  one.  Ye 
ought  therefore  to  understand."  Lightfoot  makes  it 
highly  probable  (Apostolic  Fathers,  I.  ii.  506  f.)  that  the 
"offshoot  horn"  here  is  the  Antichrist,  the  ten  horns  are 
ten  Caesars  reckoning  from  Julius,  and  the  three  horns  are 
Vespasian,  Titus,  and  Domitian  as  associated  together 
in  the  exercise  of  the  imperial  power.  The  meaning  of 
the  passage,  then,  is  that  Nero  will  return  to  make  an 
end  of  the  Flavian  Caesars :  it  is  expressed  with  delibe- 
rate obscurity,  as  a  dangerous  truth,  but  in  such  a  way 
that  the  initiate  will  understand.  The  Sibylline  predic- 
tion clearly  has  the  same  significance,  and  we  may  there- 
fore infer  that  the  expectation  upon  which  both  V.  222  ff. 


INTRODUCTION  39 

and  Barn.  IV.  4  was  based  must  have  originated  during 
the  lifetime  of  Vespasian. 

The  identification  of  the  legendary  Nero  with  the 
Antichrist  (or  his  precursor)  was  eagerly  made  by  Jewish, 
and  still  more  so  by  Christian  apocalyptists.  "This 
persecutor  of  the  disciples,  this  prodigy  of  wickedness 
and  audacity  who  outraged  humanity  and  defied  nature, 
the  son  who  murdered  his  mother,  the  engineer  who 
would  sever  the  Isthmus  and  join  the  two  seas — who 
could  he  be  but  the  man  of  sin,  the  Antichrist  or  the 
forerunner  of  the  Antichrist?"  (Lightfoot,  loc.  tit.}. 
Thus  in  Rev.  xiii.  3,  12 ,  Nero  is  the  beast  whose  "death- 
stroke  was  healed,"  he  "who  hath  the  stroke  of  the 
sword,  and  lived";  and  in  xvii.  8,  u,  he  is  "the  beast 
who  was  and  is  not,  and  is  about  to  come  up  out  of  the 
abyss  and  to  go  into  perdition." 

In  Or.  Sib.  III.-V.  the  following  passages  refer  to  this 
legendary  figure:  III.  63  (conceivably);  IV.  117-124, 
I37~1Z9>  v-  27-34.  i37-r54  (perhaps  also  100  ff.), 
214-224,  361-372. 

InV.27  ff.,2i4ff.  the  disappearance  of  Nero  is  connected 
with  his  ill-omened  attempt  to  cut  a  canal  through  the 
Corinthian  Isthmus,  a  work  in  which  Jewish  prisoners 
sent  by  Vespasian  were  employed.  He  did  not  die — 
here  the  tradition  diverges  from  that  in  the  Apocalypse — 
but  ran  from  Rome  as  a  fugitive  (IV.  117,  138;  V.  138, 
214),  and  took  refuge  beyond  the  Euphrates,  beyond 
Parthia,  with  the  Persians  and  the  Medes.  He  was  the 
cause  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem :  he  plotted  with 
the  Medes  and  Persians  against  the  Jews,  and  took  the 
temple,  burnt  the  citizens  and  those  who  went  up  to  the 
temple. 

The  delineations  of  V.,  compared  with  those  of  IV., 
are  more  highly  coloured,  and  their  apocalyptic  content 


40  INTRODUCTION 

is  fuller.  In  V.  the  second-century  passage  ayff.  says 
that  Nero  will  "  make  himself  equal  with  God."  The 
earlier  passages  are  less  definite  and  yet  stronger.  As  in 
Rev.  xii.  3  ff.,  "the  whole  earth  wondered  after  the 
beast,"  so  in  137  ff.,  "when  he  appeared  the  whole 
creation  was  shaken  " :  as  in  Rev.  xii.  5,  there  was  given 
to  him  a  mouth  speaking  great  things  .  .  .  and  authority  ; 
so  in  2i4ff.  he  will  "do  great  things,  for  God  will  give 
him  power  to  do  as  no  king  had  done  before":  "he 
will  devise  more  prudently  than  any  man  "  (366)  :  he  will 
seize  upon  Rome,  and  bring  in  a  reign  of  terror  which 
will  only  terminate  with  the  great  catastrophe  of  the  end. 
All  this  is  to  come  about  "in  the  last  time,  when  the 
moon  reaches  its  last  days."  And  the  Antichrist  who 
will  then  appear  will  (like  the  Belial  of  the  Ascension  of 
Isaiah)  be  one  who  murdered  his  mother  (363,  31,  145). 
His  coming  is  divinely  permitted  (220),  and  (as  in  Rev. 
xiii.  7)  the  power  which  he  is  to  wield  will  be  given  him 
by  God. 

The  later  Sibylline  books  add  nothing  to  the  picture 
here  drawn.  But  the  belief  that  Nero  was  alive,  and 
would  return,  did  not  die  quickly.  "  Most  men,"  said 
Dio  Chrysostom  early  in  the  second  century,  "  verily  do 
believe  at  this  day  that  Nero  is  living."  It  was  held 
and  asserted  by  Victorinus  of  Pettau  at  the  end  of  the 
third  century,1  and  rejected  as  "delirious"  by  the  author 
of  Lactantius  de  Morte  Persecutorum?  Jerome  notes  it 
as  a  common  opinion,3  but  passes  no  judgement  upon  it : 
Augustine  4  repudiates  it  with  contempt,  while  Sulpicius 
Severus  puts  it,  in  an  elaborate  form,  into  the  mouth  of 

1  Victorious  in  Apocalypsin,  Corptis.  Scr.  Eccl.  Lat.  49,  p.  120. 
8  Lact.  de  Morle  Pers. ,  2,  8. 

3  Jerome,  Comm.  in  Dan.  xi.  29. 

4  Aug.,  De  Civ.  Dei,  XX.  19. 


INTRODUCTION  41 

an  interlocutor  in  a  dialogue,1  and  appears  to  hold  it  true 
himself.2  Even  in  the  East  there  is  a  possible  trace  of 
it  in  St.  Chrysostom,3  but  whether  he  regarded  Nero  as 
anything  more  than  a  type  of  Antichrist  is  left — perhaps 
intentionally — obscure. 


VI.  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

(i)  EDITIONS. 

THE  editio  princeps  is  that  of  Betuleius  (Sixtus  Birken), 
Basle,  1545  :  it  was  followed  by  that  of  Castalio  (S. 
Chateillon),  also  published  at  Basle,  in  1555,  and  by 
those  of  Opsopoeus  (Joh.  Koch),  at  Paris  in  1599  and 
1607.  No  one  appears  to  have  anything  good  to  say 
of  the  work  of  Servatius  Gallaeus  (Servais  Galle),  a 
polemical  Protestant  edition  published  at  Amsterdam  in 
1688 ;  and  the  edition  included  by  Gallandi  in  the 
Bibliotheca  veterum  Patrum  (Venice,  1765)  added  only 
a  little  to  the  achievement  of  earlier  scholars.  The  first 
discovery  of  Angela  Mai*  was  published  in  1817,  and 
the  second  was  included  in  the  Scriptorum  reterum  nova 
collectio  of  1828.  A  full  account  of  his  predecessors' 
work  is  given  in  the  monumental  work  of  C.  Alexandre 
(Paris  1 841, '53, '56),  which,  with  its  voluminous  Excursus 
and  Supplementary  Notes,  is  still  indispensable  to  the 
student.  This  fine  piece  of  erudition  marks  the  beginning 
of  the  modern  study  of  the  Oracula.  It  was  followed  by 
the  text,  commentary,  and  German  metrical  rendering  of 
J.  H.  Friedlieb  (Leipzig,  1852) ;  but  the  first  attempt  at 

1  Sulp.  Sev.  Dial.  ii. 

2  Id.  Hist.  Sacr,  II.  xxix.     "Creditur   .    .    .    sub   saeculi  fine 
mittendus  ut  mysterium  iniquitatis  exerceat. 

3  Chrys.  Horn.  IV.  on  ii.  Thess. 
*  See  above,  p.  16. 


42  INTRODUCTION 

a  thorough  critical  study  of  the  text  was  made  by  Alois 
Rzach  (Vienna  1891,  followed  by  Analekta  zur  kritik 
und  Exegese  der  S.  O.,  Vienna  1907.  Further  progress 
was  made  by  foh.  Geffcken,  whose  text  (undertaken  for 
the  Prussian  Kirchenvater  Commission,  and  issued  at 
Leipzig  in  1902)  has  been  mainly  followed  in  the 
present  translation.  In  his  introduction  Geffcken  gives 
an  account  of  various  scholars,  notably  Mendelssohn  and 
JBuresch,  who  planned  editions  which  they  did  not  live 
to  complete,  and  left  valuable  material  behind  them. 

(ii)  TRANSLATIONS. 

Besides  the  rendering  into  Latin  hexameters  which 
forms  part  of  the  work  of  Alexandre,  and  the  German 
hexameters  of  Friedlieb,  the  Oracles  as  a  whole  are 
accessible  in  the  rendering  ofy.  Floyer  (London  1731) 
and  that  of  M.  S.  Terry  (New  York,  1890),  while  Books 
III.-V.,  translated  with  valuable  notes  and  an  introduc- 
tion by  H.  C.  O.  Lanchester,  will  be  found  in  Vol.  II. 
pp.  368  ff.  of  Dr.  Charles'  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha 
of  the  Old  Testament  (Oxford  1913)  :  they  are  also 
rendered  into  German  prose  by  Blass  in  vol  ii.  of 
Kautzsch's  Apokryphen  und  Pseudepigraphen  des  alien 
Testaments  (Tubingen,  1900). 

(iii)  ESSAYS,  ARTICLES,  ETC. 

Out  of  the  mass  of  literature  dealing  with  the  Sibylline 
Oracles  it  is  only  possible  to  mention  here  a  few  works 
which  have  been  found  useful,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  the  preparation  of  this  book. 

Bousset,  W.,  Antichrist.     (English  Translation.) 
„    Die  Religion  des  Judentums  im  neutestamentlichen 
Zeitalter  (cited  as  R.  J.),  (Berlin,  1903). 


INTRODUCTION  43 

Schiirer,  The  Jewish  People  in  the  time  of  Christ, 

Div.  II.  vol.  iii.,  esp.  pp.  271  ff. 
Christ  W.,  Geschichte  der  griechischen  Litteratur,  II. 

i.  pp.   463  ff.    (in   Mullet's   Handbuch   der  kl. 

Altertiimer,  vol.  vii.). 
Badt,  B.,   Ursprung,  Inhalt   und    Text   des   vierten 

Buches  der  sibyllinischen  Orakel  (Breslau,  1878). 
Geffcken  /".,    Komposition   und    Entstehungszeit   der 

Oracula  Sibyllina,  in  Texte  und  Untersuchungen 

(cited  as  T.  U.)  new  series,  viii.  i.  (Leipzig,  1902). 
Buresch,  Klaros  (Leipzig,  1889). 
Klausen,    Aeneas    und    die    Penaten,    I.    203-312 

(Hamburg,  1839). 
Gruppe,  Griechische  Kulte  und  Mythen,  pp.  675  ff. 

(Leipzig,  1887). 
Bousset,    W.,    in   Zeitschrift    fur    neutestamentliche 

Wissenschaft,  iii.  1902,  pp.  23  ff. 
Geffcken  J.,  in  Nachr.  der  koniglichen  Gesellschaft  der 

Wissenschaften  zu  Gottingen,   1899,  pp.  441  ff. 

(Studien  zur  alteren  Nerosage). 
„  ib.  1900,  pp.  88  ff.  (Die  babylonische  Sibylle). 
,,  in     Preussische     Jahrbucher,     1901     (November), 

pp.  193-214  (Die  Sibylle). 
Zahn,  Th.,  in  Zeitschrift  fiir  kirchliche  Wissenschaft, 

vii.,  1886,  pp.  32  ff. 

Note. — The  sign  f  is  used  in  the  translation  to  indicate 
passages  where  the  text  is  specially  obscure  or  corrupt. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 


BOOK    III 

1-7,  8-45  :  A  Prologue. 

HEAVENLY  blessed  One,  thundering  from  on  high, 
who  enthroned  dost  hold  the  Cherubim  in  thy  hand, 
give  me  rest  a  little  space,  who  have  uttered  words  of 
very  truth :  for  my  heart  is  weary  within  me. 

But  why  is  this,  that  my  heart  again  is  shaken,  and 
my  spirit,  smitten  with  a  scourge,  is  driven  to  proclaim    5 
unto  all  a  voice  from  within  her  ?     Yet  once  more  will  I 
utter  all  things  that  God  bids  me  tell  out  to  men. 

Ye  men,  to  whom  God  has  given  an  image  shaped 
by  Him  in  His  likeness,  why  do  ye  vainly  err,  and  walk  jo 

1-7.  The  Sibyl,  hue  to  her  character  (Plut.,  De  Pyth.  Or.,  VII. 
2fj3fAA.cc  /J.au'0/j.tvf  crr6/j.aTi,  KaO'  'Hpa/cAerroj'  .  .  .  <f>6eyyofj.fvri. 
Verg. ,  Ai.n.  VI.  76-80)  speaks  only  under  the  stress  of  inspiration. 
This  is  maintained  throughout  Book  III.  (cf.  162  ff.,  2958".,  489 ff.) 
and  Book  V.  (52,  Hi,  286),  and  is  implied  in  the  opening  of  IV. 
cf.  162 ff.,  489 ff.,  295  ff.,  IV.  18,  V.  52,  HI,  286. 

8-45.  Proclamation  of  monotheism  and  polemic  against  idolatry, 
especially  that  of  the  Egyptians  (30).  For  this  passage  Blass  (in 
Kautzsch,  Apokryphen,  II.  184)  substitutes  the  similar  lines  from 
Theoph.,  Ad.  Antol.  ii.  366,  which  Theophilus  alleges  to  come  from 
the  Sibyl  tv  apxj?  TT}S  irpotyirreias.  But  the  Theophilus  passage  is 
less  simple  than  8-45,  and  has  one  clearly  Christian  line.  Geffcken 
(T.  U,  15,  69  ff.)  decides  in  favour  of  8-45,  which,  however, 
he  considers  to  be  probably  Christian,  on  the  ground  that  they 
follow  the  regular  routine  of  Christian  apologetic.  It  would  be 
safer  to  say  that  they  represent  just  the  type  of  Jewish  argumenta- 
tion which  Christian  apologists  most  eagerly  borrowed.  See  the 
refs.  in  Geffcken,  Comm.  ad.  loc. 

45 


46  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

not  in  a  straight  path,  remembering  ever  the  immortal 
Creator  ?  There  is  one  God,  sole  ruler,  ineffable,  dwell- 
ing in  the  sky,  self-begotten,  invisible,  who  Himself 
alone  seeth  all  things :  whom  the  hand  of  the  stone- 
worker  made  not,  nor  does  the  form  shaped  by  art 

r5  of  man  from  gold  or  ivory  reveal  Him ;  but  the  Eternal 
Himself  revealed  Himself,  who  is  and  was  and  ever  shall 
be :  for  who  being  mortal  can  behold  God  with  his 
eyes?  or  who  can  bear  even  to  hear  but  the  name  of 

20  the  great  God  of  heaven  that  ruleth  the  world  ?  Who 
by  His  word  created  all  things,  the  heaven  and  the  sea 
and  the  unwearying  sun  and  the  moon  at  her  full,  and 
the  shining  stars,  the  mighty  mother  Tethys,  fountains 
and  rivers,  fire  undying,  days  and  nights.  He  is  the  God 

25  who  formed  Adam,  name  of  four  letters,  who  was  first 
created,  and  took  the  full  meaning  of  his  name  from 
East  and  West  and  South  and  North;  and  He  estab- 
lished the  form  and  shape  of  mortals,  and  made  the 
beasts,  birds  and  creeping  things.  Ye  worship  Him 

30  not,  nor  do  ye  fear  God,  but  vainly  err,  adoring  serpents 

II.  "The  belief  in  the  one  invisible  spiritual  God,  who,  Himself 
uncreated,  has  called  out  from  Himself  this  visible  creaturely  world, 
is  the  supreme  essential  in  the  mission-preaching  of  Hellenistic 
Judaism"  (Bousset,  Jf.  /.  296).  The  Jewish  verses  ascribed  to 
Orpheus,  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  etc.,  illustrate  this  as  clearly  as  do 
the  Sibylline  books:  cf.  IV.  10  ff.,  and  Exod.  xxiv.  9-11  (LXX.),  as 
contrasted  with  Ps.  xvii.  15,  Isaiah  xxxviii.  II. 

18.  The  name:  cf.  Lev.  xviii.  16  (LXX.).  "  He  that  nameth  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  let  him  die  the  death,"  and  the  legend  quoted 
from  Alex.  Polyhistor  by  Eus.,  Prcep.  Ev.  IX.  xxvii. —  "and  when 
the  king  (Pharaoh)  heard  it  (the  Name)  he  fell  speechless."  Cf. 
Bousset,  R.J.  302  ff. 

25.  The  four  letters  of  Adam  represent  Anatole,  Dusis,  Arktos, 
Mesembria ;  cf.  2  Enoch,  30.  13;  this  "acrostic"  reappears  in 
ps-Cyprian  De  Montibus  Sina  et  Sion,  4.  It  implies  the  existence 
of  a  tradition  that  Greek  was  the  original  language  :  cf.  Jub.  3,  28, 
note. 

30.  See  the  similar  denunciations  of  Egyptian  animal-worship 
in  V.  77  ff.,  279  f.,  etc.  The  topic  was  congenial  to  Jewish  and 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  4? 

and  doing  sacrifice  to  cats  and  dumb  idols,  and  to 
images  of  men  wrought  in  stone,  and  to  godless  temples, 
sitting  before  their  doors ;  |  ye  do  not  pay  observance  to 
the  God  Who  is,  who  guardeth  all  things,  ye  who  rejoice 
in  vile  stones,  forgetting  the  judgement  of  the  immortal  35 
Saviour  who  made  heaven  and  earth.  Ah,  bloodthirsty 
race,  guileful,  evil,  impious  :  race  of  false  men,  double- 
tongued,  crafty,  adulterous,  guileful  in  mind,  in  whose 
breasts  evil  is  implanted,  a  raging  frenzy :  who  grasp  at  40 
plunder  for  themselres,  shameless  in  spirit;  for  none 
that  has  wealth  and  possessions  will  give  a  share  to 
another,  but  grievous  wickedness  shall  be  found  among 
all  mortals,  and  they  will  not  keep  faith,  but  many  a 
woman  that  is  a  widow  will  give  herself  in  secret  love 
to  men,  and  will  not  keep  to  the  plumb-line  of  life  in  45 
wedlock. 

45-62.    Woes  upon  Rome :   the  Messianic  Kingdom  and 

Judgement. 

But  when  Rome  shall  rule  over  Egypt,  though  still 
delaying,  then  shall  the  great  kingdom  of  the  immortal 

Christian  apologists  alike  ;  cf.  Letter  of  Aristeas,  1 38,  Justin,  Apol. 
i.  24,  2. 

35.  Saviour:  cf.  Wisd.  xvi.  7,  Ecclus.  li.  I,  I  Mace.  iv.  30, 
3  Mace.  vi.  32. 

46-62.  The  dating  of  this  passage  depends  partly  on  the  identi- 
fications of  the  "three"  in  1.  52,  and  partly  on  the  interpretation  of 
11.  46-7.  (a)  If  the  "three"  are  the  Second  Triumvirate,  Antony, 
Lepidus,  Octavius,  the  passage  is  not  earlier  than  the  period  between 
43  and  31  B.C.,  when  Roman  sovereignty  in  Egypt,  already  asserted 
by  the  removal  of  Ptolemy  Auletes  in  51  B.C.,  had  not  yet  been 
organized  as  it  was  after  the  battle  of  Actium.  (6)  A  less  likely 
interpretation  identifies  the  "three"  with  the  First  Triumvirate, 
Caesar,  Pompey  and  Crassus,  60  B.C.;  the  miseries  of  the  Second 
Triumvirate  might  well  be  described  as  laying  Rome  waste,  but 
the  words  would  hardly  fit  the  situation  of  60  B.C.  (c)  It  is  still 
less  likely  that  1.  46  refers  to  the  discomfiture  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
by  Popillius  Lsenas  at  Eleusis  in  168  B.C.,  the  "three"  being  on 
that  view  the  Gracchi,  (d)  Lanchester  is  inclined  to  refer  1.  46  to 


48  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

king  appear  among  men,  and  a  holy  king  shall  come 

50  who  shall  have  rule  over  the  whole  earth  for  all  ages  of 

the  course  of  time.     Then  shall  implacable  wrath   fall 

upon  the  men  of  Latium ;  three  men  shall  ravage  Rome 

with  pitiable  affliction ;  and  all  men  shall  perish  beneath 

their  own  roof-tree,  when  the  torrent  of  fire  shall  flow 

55  down  from  heaven.     Ah,  wretched  me,  when  shall  that 

day  come,  and  the  judgement  of  immortal  God,  the 

great  king?    Yet  still  be  ye  builded,  ye  cities,  and  all 

adorned  with  temples  and  theatres,  with  market  squares 

and  images  of  gold,  silver  and  stone,  that  so   ye  may 

60  come  to  the  day  of  bitterness.     For  it  shall  come,  when 

the  smell  of  brimstone  shall  pass  upon  all  men.     But  I 

.   will  tell  out  singly  how  many  are  the  cities  in  which  men 

shall  suffer  ill. 


the  bequest  of  Cyrene  to  the  Roman  people  by  Ptolemy  Apion  in 
96  B.C.,  and  to  identify  the  "three"  with  Marius,  Sulla  and  Cinna. 

But  (i)  a  comparison  of  the  Messianic  figure  in  11.  49-50  with 
that  in  Ps.  Sol.  xvii.  23  ff.,  I  Enoch,  48.  5,  2  Baruch,  72.  2  ff., 
suggests  a  late  date  for  the  passage ;  and  (2)  this  is  supported  by  1.  54  : 
the  predicted  conflagration  is  universal  and  "apocalyptic":  it  can 
hardly  refer  to  any  actual  event  (such  as  the  fire  on  the  Capitol  in 
83  B.C.).  Now  the  conception  of  a  world-destroying  fire  preceding 
the  New  Age  is  a  feature  of  late  Apocalyptic  (Bousset,  R.J.,  cf.  III. 
83 ff.,  V.  54 ff.,  72 ff.;  and  it  seems,  therefore,  probable  that  46-62 
belongs  to  the  latest  Jewish  stratum  of  Book  III. 

The  rule  of  the  holy  King  in  11.  46  ff.  ends  in  judgement  and 
calamity.  Similarly,  in  I  Enoch  91.  11-19,  93-  I-I4»  the  "eighth 
week  "  is  that  of  a  kingdom  which  ends  in  judgement :  cf.  Sib.,  III. 
652-660,  and  I  Cor.  xv.  23-28.  Dominant  in  late  Apocalyptic 
(as  in  Rev.  xx.  and  2(4)  Ezra),  this  conception  is  foreign  to  the 
earlier  literature.  Whether  it  is  pre-Christian  at  all  seems  to  be 
doubtful. 

60.  brimstone.     Luke  xvii.  29  f.  =  Gen.  xix.  24. 

63  ff.  Who  are  the  Sebasteni  from  whom  Belial  is  to  come  ? 
According  to  Bousset,  Antichrist,  96  f.  (E.  T. )  they  are  the  August! ; 
Antichrist  is  to  spring  from  the  dynasty  of  the  Caesars,  a  view  not 
easy  to  square  with  Bousset's  belief  that  the  passage  is  earlier  than 
the  age  of  Augustus.  When  Suetonius  says  (Nero  xl.)  that  the 
dominion  of  the  East  and  the  kinrd'Mn  of  TiHah  were  foretold 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  49 

63-92,  93-96.  Miracles  and  Doom  of  Antichrist ;  the 
final  Conflagration ;    return  of  the  Messiah. 

Now  from  the  Sebastenes  shall  Belial  return,  and  he 
shall  move  the  high  mountains,  still  the  sea,  shall  make  65 
the  great  blazing  sun  and  the  bright  moon  stand  still, 
shall  raise  the  dead  and  do  many  signs  among  men : 
yet   shall    his   signs   not    be    fulfilled.      But    he   leads 
many  astray,  and  shall  deceive  many  faithful  and  elect 
of  the  Hebrews,  and  lawless  men  besides,  who  never  70 
yet  hearkened  to  God's  word. 

But  when  the  threatenings  of  the  great  king  come 
near  to  fulfilment,  and  a  fiery  power  comes  through  the 
deep  to  land  and  burns  up  Belial  and  all  men  of  pride, 
even  all  that  put  their  trust  in  him :  then  shall  the  75 
world  be  ruled  beneath  a  woman's  hand,  and  obey  her 
in  all  things.  And  when  a  widow  rules  over  the  whole 
world,  and  casts  gold  and  silver  into  the  deep  sea  with 

to  Nero  during  his  lifetime,  it  is  to  a  tradition  of  this  kind  that  he 
refers. 

But,  according  to  Geffcken  and  Jiilicher,  the  Sebasteni  are  the 
people  of  Samaria,  which  was  re-named  Sebaste  by  Herod  the 
Great  in  25  B.C.  ;  the  Antichrist  from  Samaria  must  be  connected 
with  Simon  Magus,  and  the  whole  passage  shows  a  Christian  hand. 

63.  Beliar :  on  the  name  see  Bousset,  JR.  J.  328  f.     The  Anti- 
christ of  Sib.  V.  is  a  tyrant ;  here  he  is  a  false  prophet,  as  often  in 
Christian  tradition,  e.g.    2   Thess.  ii.    1-12,  Rev.    xiii.    1-18  (cf. 
i  John  ii.  18,  etc.),  Mark  xiii.  22,  2  Thess.  ii.  gf.  ;  Didache  16, 
"then  shall  appear  the  deceiver  of  the  world  as  Son  of  God."     He 
is  called  Beliar  as  in  2  Cor.  vi.  15  :  so  also  in  Asc.  Is.  iv.  2. 

64.  (TTTjcrej   apparently  here  =  raise  up,  take  away,  remove,  in 
65  "cause  to  stand  still,"  and  in  66  merely  "raise  up."     For  the 
portents  of  Antichrist  (Mark  xiii.  22)  see  Bousset,  Antichrist  (\L.T.}, 
175  ff. 

75.  The  Woman,  and  the  Widow  of  1.  77  are  Rome  (rather  than 
Cleopatra)  ;  Rev.  xvii.  3,  etc. :  cf.  Sib.  VIII.  194. 

78.  Cast  gold  and  silver  into  the  sea.  It  is  tempting  to  see  here 
a  reference  to  Nero's  vast  project,  actually  begun  and  abandoned, 
of  cutting  a  canal  from  Lake  Avernus  to  Ostia  ;  Tac.  Ann.  xv.  42, 
Suet.  Nero  31. 


50  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

80  the  bronze  and  iron  of  short-lived  mortals,  then  shall  all 
the  elements  of  the  world  be  as  one  widowed,  when  God 
that  dwelleth  in  the  heavens  shall  roll  up  the  sky  as  a 
book  is  rolled  up:  and  the  whole  firmament  with  its 
many  signs  shall  fall  upon  the  earth  and  the  sea ;  and 

85  then  shall  flow  a  ceaseless  torrent  of  liquid  fire,  and 
shall  burn  up  the  earth  and  burn  up  the  sea,  and  melt 
down  the  firmament  of  heaven,  the  days  and  the  very 
creation,  fusing  them  into  one  clear  mass. 

And  then  no  longer  does  one  pay  heed  to  the 
planetary  spheres  that  laugh  aloud,  nor  to  night  nor 

90  daybreak,  nor  to  day  following  day,  nor  to  spring  and 
summer,  autumn  and  winter.  And  then  shall  come 
forth  the  judgement  of  the  great  God,  in  the  great  age, 
when  all  these  things  come  to  pass. 

Ah,  for  the  waters  where  go  the  ships,  and  for  all  the 
dry  land,  when  that  sun  rises  which  shall  not  set  again ! 
95  All  things  shall  obey  him  when  he  returns  to  the  world  ; 
therefore  was  he  the  first  to  know  his  own  power. 

80.  Cf.  Sib.  II,  206  ff.,  Isaiah  xxxiv.  4,  2  Pet.  iii.  10.  The 
"elements"  here  and  in  Sib.  II.  are  (air),  earth,  sea,  starry 
heaven,  day  and  niyht. 

87.  A  faint  reminiscence  of  Mai.  iii.  3,  \tavt\xav  Kal  Ka8apl£wi>. 

89  f.  Close  parallels  in  2(4)  Ezra  vii.  39  f.,  cf.  2  Enoch  65-7.  The 
"great  age  "is  one  and  timeless:  2  Enoch  33.  2,  "I  appointed 
.  .  .  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  eight  thousand  years  there  should 
be  a  time  of  not-counting,  endless,  with  neither  years  nor  months 
nor  weeks  nor  days  nor  hours."  For  the  place  of  this  conception 
in  Stoic  doctrine  see  Zeller,  III.  i.  154,  note  2,  Phil,  der  Gr.  ;  for 
Jewish  illustrations,  and  Persian  analogues,  Bousset,  R.J.  232  ff., 
476,  note  3. 

92.  The  great  God.  For  the  increased  stress  laid  upon  the 
Divine  transcendence  in  later  Judaism,  and  its  influence  upon  names 
and  attributes  employed,  see  Bousset,  R.  J.  302  ff.,  especially  305, 
note  8. 

93-6.  Clearly  Christian  ;  on  95  cf.  I  Cor.  xv.  27,  Heb.  ii.  8 ; 
the  line  is  apparently  quoted  in  Ps.  Just.  Coh.  ad  Gr.  38. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  51 

97-154.   The  Tower  of  Babel  :  myth  of  Kronos  and 
the  Titans. 

But  when  the  threatenings  of  the  great  king  come  to 
fulfilment,  wherewith  once  he  threatened  mankind,  when 
they  built  a  tower  in  the  land  of  Assyria,  and  were  all 
of  one  speech,  and  wished  to  climb  up  to  the  starry  Ioo 
heaven,  then  straightway  the  Immortal  laid  a  great  com- 
mand upon  the  winds  :  and  when  the  winds  cast  down 
the  tower  great  and  high,  and  stirred  up  strife  among 
mortals  against  each  other;  then  did  mortals  give  the 
name  of  Babylon  to  their  city. 

But  when  the  tower  had  fallen,  and  the  languages  of  105 
men  were  changed  into  divers  tongues,  then  the  whole 
world  of  men  was  filled  with  divided  kingdoms;  and 
then  was  the  tenth  generation  of  mortal  men  since  the 
deluge  came  upon  those  of  old  time.      Then  reigned  no 
Kronos,  Titan  and  lapetus,  the  noblest  children  of  Gaia 
(earth)  and  Ouranos  (heaven),  whom  men  called  Earth 
and  Heaven  because  they  were  the  foremost  of  mortal 
men.     These  had  each  for  his  portion  a  third  part  of 
the  earth,  and  each  held  and   ruled  his  own  portion  "5 


96.  The  text  is  obscure  ;  Lancbester  conjectures  eV^yvue  for 
iirffva  ;  "forasmuch  as  he  first  fashioned  them,  and  his  might"; 
but  possibly  fireyvca  or  fireyv&KGi.  is  right,  and  the  allusion  is  to 
such  a  consciousness  of  power  as  is  expressed  in  Matt.  xi.  27. 

97-154.  Geffcken  has  shown  {Nachrichten  der  k.  Gesellschaft  zu 
Gottingen,  1900,  88  ff.,  TU  2  ff.)  that  this  section  is  a  Jewish 
redaction  of  material  from  the  Babylonian  Sibyl.  Alexander 
Folyhistor  (in  Josephus,  Ant.  I.  iv.  3)  knew  the  Babylonian  version  ; 
he  quotes  the  Sibyl  for  the  stoiy  of  the  tower,  thus:  "but  the 
gods  sent  winds  and  overthrew  the  tower,  and  gave  each  man  a 
separate  language."  Other  refs.  in  Geffcken's  note. 

113.  they  were  .  .  .  mortal  men:  this  is  not  merely  an 
"  euhemerism  "  ;  it  is  directly  derived  from  Euhemerus,  from  whose 
"humanized  mythology"  the  Babylonian  Sibyl  took  the  whole 
story  of  the  Titans,  as  may  be  seen  from  Ennius'  version  of 
Euhemerus  quoted  in  Lactantius,  Div,  fnsf.  I.  14,  2. 


52  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

without  conflict;  for  an  oath  had  been  laid  on  them 
by  their  father  and  a  just  apportionment.  But  when  the 
full  time  came,  and  their  father  was  old,  then  he  died  : 
then  his  sons  transgressed  grievously  the  oath  and  stirred 

1 20  up  strife  against  each  other,  which  of  them  should  have 
royal  honour  and  rule  over  all  mankind;  and  now 
Kronos  and  now  Titan  fought  against  the  others.  But 
them  did  Rhea  and  Gaia  and  Aphrodite  lover  of  garlands 
with  Demeter  and  Hestia  and  fair-tressed  Dione  bring 
to  agreement :  for  they  gathered  together  all  the  kings, 

125  their  brothers'  kindred,  and  those  of  their  own  blood, 
and  others  such  as  were  of  one  blood  and  parentage 
with  them ;  and  they  adjudged  that  Kronos  as  king 
should  rule  over  all,  for  that  he  was  eldest  and  noblest 
to  look  upon.  Thereupon  Titan  laid  upon  Kronos  a 

130  great  oath,  that  he  would  not  bring  up  male  offspring 
which  should  have  kingship  when  old  age  and  destiny 
should  come  upon  Kronos :  but  whenever  Rhea  bore  a 
child,  by  her  sat  the  Titans,  and  tore  in  pieces  all  the 
men-children,  but  the  maids  they  left  alive  with  their 

135  mother,  to  be  reared.  But  when  the  lady  Rhea  brought 
forth  for  the  third  time,  she  bare  Hera  first,  and  when 
they  saw  with  their  eyes  that  the  child  was  a  maid,  the 
Titans  those  fierce  men  went  off  by  themselves :  and 
then  Rhea  brought  forth  a  man-child;  him  she  sent 

140  swiftly  to  be  nurtured  apart  and  in  secret,  to  Phrygia, 
laying  three  men,  Cretans,  under  an  oath ;  therefore  they 
called  him  Zeus,  because  he  was  sent  thither.  And  in 

1 1 6.  oath  .  .  .  apportionment;  with  this  may  be  compared 
Noah's  division  of  the  earth  into  three  lots,  and  the  oath  with 
which  it  was  ratified  ;  see  Jub.  8  and  9,  esp.  8,  II  ff.,  9,  14. 

141.  A/a  .  .  .  b-ri^i  fiieire/j.<f>0r).  The  usual  Stoic  account  of  the 
name  Ai'a  is  that  through  Zeus  all  things  were  made ;  this  re- 
appears in  Jewish  writings,  e.g.,  Aristeas,  16.  The  Sibyllist's 
version  is  on  a  lower  level  of  intelligence. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  53 

like  manner  she   sent  over  Poseidon  secretly.     Yet  a 
third  time  Rhea  that  fair  goddess  bare  Pluto,  on  her 
way  past  Dodona,  whence  flow  the  watery  ways  of  the  14:5 
river   Europus,  and  pass  to  mingle  with   Peneius,  and 
men  call   the  stream  Stygian.      But  when  the   Titans 
heard  that  there  were  men-children  kept  secretly,  whom 
Kronos  had  begotten  of  Rhea  his  consort,  then  Titan 
gathered  his  sixty  sons  and  kept  in  bondage  Kronos  and  150 
Rhea  his  consort,  hid  them  in  the  earth,  and  kept  them 
in  bonds  and  in  ward.     This  then  the  sons  of  mighty 
Kronos   heard,   and   stirred   up   great   war  and    battle 
against  him ;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  war  for  all  155 
mortals. 

And  then  God  made  evil  to  come  upon  the  Titans, 
and  all  the  offspring  of  the  Titans  and  of  Kronos 
perished.  But  then  in  the  course  of  time  he  raised  up 
the  kingdom  of  Egypt,  then  of  the  Persians,  Medes,  160 
^thopians  and  Assyrian  Babylon  ;  thereafter  of  the 
Macedonians,  then  again  that  of  Egypt,  and  then  of 
Rome. 

162-195.  The  Kingdoms  of  the  earth,  down  to  Rome  as 
the  destroyer  of  the  Seleucids. 

Thereon  the  voice  of  the  great  God  arose  in  my  heart, 
and  bade  me  prophesy  over  all   the  earth  and   before 
kings,  and  to  put  them  in  mind  of  that  which  was  to 
be.     And  this  first  did  God  give   into  my   mind,  how  ^ 
many  empires  shall  be  raised  up  among  men. 

161.  The  insertion  of  Egypt  in  the  series  of  world-powers  be- 
tween Macedonia  and  Rome  betrays  an  Egyptian  hand 

156-210.  The  disorder  of  this  section  is  inextricable.  The 
general  idea  seems  to  be  a  transition  from  the  myth  of  the  Titans 
to  an  outline  of  world-history,  ending  with  that  of  Israel  :  and  this 
transition  is  repeated  in  several  forms,  with  matter  of  very  various 
dates  and  kinds  entangled  in  it.  Thus  in  156-161  we  have  the  series 


54  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

First  of  all  the  house  of  Solomon  shall  bear  rule,  f  and 
the  Phoenicians,  invaders  of  Asia  and  the  isles  as  well, 
and  the  race  of  Pamphylians,  the  Persians  and  Phrygians, 

170  the  Carians  and  Mysians,  and  the  wealthy  race  of 
Lydia. 

But  then  shall  come  the  Greeks,  proud  and  profane 
people ;  then  that  other  people,  the  Macedonian,  great 
and  diverse,  who  shall  come  upon  men  as  a  dread  cloud 
of  war ;  but  the  God  of  heaven  shall  utterly  root  them 
out. 

175  But  then  there  shall  be  the  beginning  of  another 
empire  from  the  western  sea,  white  and  many-headed, 
which  shall  rule  over  wide  lands,  and  overthrow  many 
and  make  all  kings  to  fear  thereafter,  and  ravish  much 

180  gold  and  silver  out  of  many  cities  ;  but  yet  again  there 
shall  be  gold  in  the  fair  earth,  and  therewith  silver  and 
precious  things  :  and  they  shall  vex  mankind.  But  great 
shall  be  the  fall  of  those  men,  when  they  fall  to  pride 
and  unrighteousness.  Straightway  they  shall  be  driven 
185  into  impious  doings :  men  with  men  shall  have  inter- 
course, and  they  will  put  boys  for  hire  in  houses  of 
shame ;  and  in  those  days  there  shall  be  great  tribula- 
tion among  men,  and  it  shall  bring  all  to  confusion 
and  disorder,  filling  the  world  with  evils,  through  base- 

— Titans,  Egypt,  Persia,  etc. ,  Macedonia,  Egypt,  Rome  ;  then  in 
167  ff. — House  of  Solomon,  Phoenicians,  etc.,  Lydia,  Hellas,  Mace- 
donia, Rome;  and  again  in  199  —  Titans,  Hellas,  Persia,  etc., 
Israel.  After  this  comes  (218-294)  a  fairly  continuous  prophecy  of 
Israel,  its  origin,  character,  exile,  restoration,  and  Messianic  King. 

176.  many -headed:  i.e.  a  republic. 

178.  Cf.  the  account  of  the  Roman  power  in  I  Mace.  viii.  2-4. 

185  f.  While  the  body  of  this  passage,  and  especially  11.  194-5, 
seems  to  reflect  the  feeling  of  I  Mace,  viii.,  and  may  belong  to  the 
same  period,  the  accusation  of  1.  185  must  be  far  later  :  it  has  many 
parallels  in  the  Christian  apologists  (Just.  Apol.  i.  27,  Athenag. 
Leg*  34,  Tatian,  Or.  28,  etc.),  but  was  not  true  of  Rome  in  the 
Maccabean  period.  * 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  55 

living  love  of  gain,  through  wealth  ill-gotten,  and  that  in  190 
many  lands,  but  in  Macedonia  most  of  all.     It  shall  stir  up 
hatred,  and  guile  of  all  kinds  shall  be  found  among  them 
[down  to  the  seventh  king's  reign,  the  reign  of  a  king 
of  Egypt,  a  Greek  by  birth]. 

Then   shall  the  people  of  the  great  God  once  more  195 
be  strong,  they  who  are   to  be   the   guides   of  life   to 
all  mankind. 

But  what  is  this  that  God  has  put  in  my  mind  to  utter, 
even  the  first,  the  next,  and  the  last  calamity  that 
shall  fall  upon  mankind,  and  the  beginning  of  these 
things  ? 

First  shall  God  bring  calamity  upon  the  Titans  ;  for  200 
they  shall  receive  punishment  at  the  hands  of  the  sons 
of  mighty  Kronos,   for   that  they   bound   Kronos   and 
the  lawful  mother  of  his   children.     Next  shall  tyrants 
rule  over  Greece,  and  lawless  kings,  proud  and  unholy, 
breakers   of  wedlock  and   wholly  evil;  then  shall  men 
have  no  more  rest  from  war.     The   terrible   Phrygians  205 
shall  all  perish,  and  evil  shall  come  upon  Troy  in  that 
day.     Thereafter   shall    evil  come  to  the  Persians  and 
Assyrians  and  all  Egypt  and  Libya,  upon  the  Ethiopians, 
on  the  Carians  and  Pamphylians  f  a  ruin  of  exile,  and  to  210 
all   men    alike.      Why    declare    these   things   one    by 
one? 

190.  Here  we  appear  to  return  to  the  second  century  B.C.,  the 
reference  being  to  the  battle  of  Pydna,  168  B.C.,  which  brought  to 
an  end  the  empire  of  Alexander  the  Great ;  but  182-9  appears  to  be 
clumsily  interpolated. 

195.  Cf.  Ath.  de  Inc.  xii.  :  "the  prophets  .  .  .  were  for  all  the 
world  a  holy  school  of  the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  conduct  of 
the  soul";  and  Philo.  Vit.  Mas.  ii.  4:  "the  law  attracts  and 
converts  all  men,  Greeks  and  barbarians  .  .  .  the  whole  inhabited 
world  from  one  end  to  the  other." 


56  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

211-294.   The  Jewish  people,  their  character  and  history, 
down  to  the  return  from  exile. 

As  soon  as  the  first  woe  shall  come  to  an  end,  the 
next  shall  come  upon  men.  Yet  will  I  declare  the  first 
things — evil  shall  come  upon  the  god-fearing  who  dwell 
around  the  great  temple  of  Solomon  and  are  the  offspring 

215  of  righteous  fathers.  Yet  will  I  declare  the  tribes  of 
these  men,  and  the  generation  of  their  fathers,  and  their 
people,  circumspectly,  thou  man  of  many  wiles  and 
crafty  mind. 

There  is  on  earth  a  city,  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  from 

220  which  springs  a  race  of  upright  men,  ever  given  to  wise 
counsel  and  good  works.  For  they  busy  themselves  not 
with  the  circling  course  of  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  nor 
with  monstrous  things  below  the  earth,  nor  with  the 
depth  of  the  sparkling  sea  of  Ocean,  nor  the  signs  of 

225  birds  and  winged  fowls,  nor  with  diviners  nor  sorcerers 
nor  enchanters,  nor  with  the  deceitful  follies  of  ven- 
triloquists, nor  do  they  predict  by  the  stars  as  do  the 
Chaldaeans,  nor  consult  the  heavenly  bodies ;  for  all 
those  things  are  deceitful,  all  that  foolish  men  search 

230  out  day  after  day,  exercising  their  minds  in  toil  which 
has  no  profit :  and  they  have  taught  lessons  of  shame 

218.  A  city.  The  MSS.  have  a  lacuna  in  this  line  :  Ian  ir6\ts  .  .  . 
«arct  x0OJ/2>s  Ofcp  XoA.Sofw*'.  The  missing  word  is  "Camarina." 
The  Jewish  historian  Eupolemus  (in  Eus.,  Prap.  Ev.  IX.  17.  3) 
said  that  Abraham  was  born  in  the  tenth  (or  thirteenth)  generation 
after  the  fall  of  the  tower  of  Babel,  in  the  Babylonian  city  Camarina, 
called  also  Urie  ;  and  that  he  was  the  inventor  oi  astrology  and 
Chaldrean  science.  It  would  seem  that  217-233  is  an  attack  on  this 
tradition,  based  on  scriptural  grounds  (Deut.  xviii.  IO,  Isaiah  xlvii. 
13.  etc.). 

223.  sparkling:  Xapoiroio.  This  uncommon  word  is  a  literary 
link  between  Or.  Sib.,  ps.  Sophocles,  and  the  Jewish  Orphic  verses. 

234-246.  For  this  list  of  virtues,  cf.  Sib.  II.  56  ff..  and  Bousset 
*./.  399f- 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  57 

and  error  to  men,  wherefrom  many  evils  visit  men  upon 
the  earth,  to  cause  them  to  err  from  good  ways  and  235 
righteous  works.  But  these  take  thought  for  uprightness 
and  goodness,  not  for  love  of  gain,  which  brings  forth 
countless  evils  among  mortal  men,  war  and  famine  with- 
out end.  They  keep  just  measure  in  town  and  country, 
they  go  not  a-stealing  from  one  another  by  night,  nor 
drive  off  herds  of  oxen,  sheep  and  goats,  nor  does  neigh-  240 
bour  remove  neighbour's  landmark,  nor  a  wealthy  man 
oppress  a  poorer,  nor  deal  harshly  with  the  widow,  but 
rather  helps  her  with  supplies  of  corn  and  wine  and 
oil.  Ever  does  he  that  has  abundance  among  the 
people  give  a  portion  of  his  harvest  to  them  that  have 
nothing  and  are  in  poverty,  fulfilling  the  command  of  the  245 
great  God,  the  oracle  of  the  law ;  for  the  Lord  of  heaven 
made  the  earth  to  be  possessed  by  all  in  common. 

But  when  the  people  of  the  twelve  tribes  shall  leave 
Egypt,  and  go  out  on  its  way  led  by  men  divinely  sent, 
led  on  their  journey  by  night  by  a  pillar  of  fire,  and  by  a  250 
pillar  of  cloud  all  the  hours  of  the  day,  over  them  He 
will  set  a  great  man  as  leader,  even  Moses,  whom  a 
princess  found  and  took  from  a  reed-bed,  and  brought 
him  up  and  called  him  her  son.  And  when  he  came 
leading  the  people  which  God  brought  from  Egypt  to  255 
the  sheer  mountain  of  Sinai,  God  gave  them  His  law 
from  heaven,  writing  all  the  ordinances  of  righteousness 
on  two  tables,  and  bade  them  to  keep  them  ;  and  if  one 
should  disobey,  he  should  suffer  the  penalty  of  the  law 

235.  Cf.  I  Tim.  vi.  10,  and  Bernard's  note,  in  Camb.  Gk.  Test. 
The  sentiment  comes  from  the  common  stock  of  Hellenic  maxims. 

247.  In  common  :  A  Stoical  principle  adopted  by  Jewish  teachers, 
which  afterwards  (partly  through  the  influence  of  Cicero)  found 
wide  acceptance  and  constant  expression  in  Christian  ethical  writers  ; 
cf.  e.g.  Ambrose  in  Ps.  cviii.  8,  Dominus  Deus  noster  terram  hanc 
possessionem  omnium  hominum  voluit  esse  communem  :  see  A.  J. 
and  W.  W.  Carlyle,  Medieval  Political  Theory,  ch.  xii. 


58  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

260  either  at  the  hands  of  men,  or  escaping  men's  judgement 
should  most  justly  perish.  .  .  . 

For  them  only  the  grain-bearing  earth  brings  her  full 
harvest  a  hundred-fold,  fulfilling  the  measure  of  God. 

265  But  upon  them  too  shall  evil  fall,  nor  shall  they  escape 
pestilence.  And  thou  also  shalt  go  into  exile,  and  leave 
the  fair  temple-court,  for  it  is  thy  fate  to  leave  the  holy 
ground.  And  thou  shalt  be  taken  away  to  the  Assyrians, 

270  and  see  thy  little  children  and  thy  wives  enslaved  among 
thine  enemies  :  all  thy  livelihood  and  wealth  shall  be 
destroyed :  and  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  thee, 
and  all  the  sea  :  every  man  shall  hold  thy  ordinances  in 
hatred;  and  all  thy  land  shall  be  desolate,  and  the 
builded  altar  and  the  temple  of  the  great  God  and  the 

275  long  walls  shall  all  fall  to  the  ground,  because  thou  didst 
not  set  thy  mind  to  obey  the  holy  law  of  immortal  God, 
but  didst  err  and  serve  shapeless  idols,  and  wouldst  not 
honour  the  God  of  all  mankind,  nor  fear  the  immortal 
Father  of  gods  and  of  all  men,  but  didst  honour  images, 

280  the  work  of  men.  Wherefore  thy  fruitful  land  shall  be 
desolate,  and  the  wonders  of  the  temple,  for  seven  times 
ten  years.  Yet  a  good  end  awaits  thee,  and  great  glory, 
as  immortal  God  hath  decreed  for  thee  ;  but  wait  thou, 

285  and  trust  the  holy  law  of  the  great  God,  until  he  lift  up 
and  make  straight  thy  knees  that  are  weary,  unto  the 
light.  And  then  shall  God  send  a  king  from  heaven  (or, 
the  God  of  heaven  shall  send  a  king)  and  shall  judge 

276  ff.  Cf.  Jerem.  v.  19,  etc. 

280.  Cf.  Jerem.  xxv.  12. 

286-7.  C*n  'hi5  passage  see  Introd.  p.  31.  In  the  king  divinely 
sent  to  end  the  exile  one  would  expect  to  find  a  reference  to  Cyrus ; 
but  here  we  have  an  eschatological  figure  instead. 

287.  blood  and  .  .  .  fire.  Cf.  Isaiah  Ixvi.  15-16,  Ezek.  xxxviii, 
22. 

288-9.  Cf.  Gen.  xlix.  8  f. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  59 

every  man  in  blood  and  blazing  fire.  But  there  is  a 
royal  tribe  whose  seed  shall  not  stumble,  and  it  shall 
reign  as  time  follows  time,  and  shall  begin  to  raise  up 
the  temple  of  God  anew.  And  all  the  kings  of  the  290 
Persians  shall  lend  their  aid,  with  brass  and  gold  and 
wrought  iron.  For  God  himself  shall  send  a  holy  dream 
by  night,  and  then  shall  the  temple  be  restored  again  as 
it  was. 

295-333.  Jewish  oracles  on   Babylon,  Egypt,   Gog  and 
Magog,  and  Libya. 

When  my  soul  ceased  from  the  hymn  inspired,  then  295 
I  besought  the  great  father  that  I  might  rest  from  my 
labour ;  but  again  the  voice  of  the  great  God  rose  up  in 
my  breast,  and  bade  me  prophesy  over  every  land,  and 
to  kings,  and  to  instruct  them  of  things  which  should 
come  to  pass. 

And  this  first  did  God  put  in  my  mind  to  say,  even  all  300 
the  distressful  woes  which  the   Immortal  had   devised 
against  Babylon,  because  she  laid  waste  his  great  temple. 

Woe  to  thee,  Babylon,  and  to  you,  ye  men  of  Assyria : 
a  rushing  sound  shall  come  one  day  upon  all  the  land  of 
sinners,  and  a  shout  of  battle  shall  destroy  all  the  land  305 
of  men,  even  a  stroke  from  the  hand  of  great  God,  who 
putteth  songs  in  our  mouth. 

For  from  above  He  shall  come  upon  thee,  O  Babylon, 
riding  on  the  air  [yea,  from  heaven  He  shall  descend 

291.  Cf.  Ezr.  vii.  15  f. 
293.  Cf.  perhaps  I  Esdr.  iii.  13  ff.,  LXX. 
303  ff.  Cf.  Isaiah  xiii.  4  ff.,  xlvii.  I  ff. 
307.   Cf.  Isaiah  xiii.  5,  LXX. 


60  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

upon  thee  from  the  Holy  place],  and  eternal  destruction 
310  upon  the  children  of  wrath,  f  And  then  shalt  thou  be  as 
thou  wert  before,  as  one  that  has  never  been ;  and  then 
shalt  thou  be  filled  with  blood,  as  once  thou  didst  shed 
the  blood  of  the  good  and  upright  and  holy,  whose  blood 
even  now  cries  to  high  heaven. 

315  Upon  thee,  O  Egypt,  a  great  blow  shall  fall  and  a 
terrible,  upon  thy  house,  such  as  thou  never  thoughtest 
should  come  upon  thee.  For  a  sword  shall  pass  through 
the  midst  of  thee,  dispersion  and  death  and  famine  shall 
rest  on  thee  in  the  seventh  generation  of  thy  kings,  and 
then  shalt  thou  have  rest. 

320  Woe  to  thee,  land  of  Gog  and  Magog,  in  the  midst  of 
the  rivers  of  Ethiopia  :  what  a  stream  of  blood  shall  flow 
out  upon  thee,  and  thou  shalt  be  called  among  men  the 
house  of  judgement,  and  thy  land  shall  drink  and  be 
drenched  with  red  blood. 

Woe  to  thee,  Libya ;  woe,  sea  and  land :  daughters 

325  of  the  West,  to  how  bitter  a  day  shall  ye  come  !  and 
ye  shall  come  under  the  pursuing  of  a  grievous  con- 

310.  Cf.  Isaiah  xiii.  19,  Apoc.  Bar.  xxxi.  5. 

314-18.  The  reference  is  apparently,  as  in  608-615  infr.,  to  the 
invasion  of  Egypt  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy 
Physkon  (Euergetes  II.,  146  B.C.),  and  the  passage  thus  will  belong 
to  the  earliest  Jewish  stratum  of  the  book. 

319.  Gog  and  Magog,  The  prophecies  of  Ezek.  xxxviii.-xxxix., 
in  which  Gog  of  the  land  of  Magog  is  a  mighty  adversary  who  will 
be  raised  up  against  Israel  in  the  latter  years  and  will  then  be  utterly 
destroyed,  exercised  a  strong  influence  upon  Jewish  eschatological 
conceptions.  Here  and  512  infr.  Gog  and  Magog  are  the  adversary 
whose  annihilation  must  precede  the  Messianic  age  ;  cf.  Rev.  xx. 
7  f.,l  Enoch  56,  2  Baruch  70.  7-10  :  also  Num.  xxiv.  (LXX.).  For 
the  influence  of  this  idea  in  later  Judaism  see  Bousset,  R.  J,  206  f. , 
Antichrist,  Index. 

The  identification  of  Gog  and  Magog  with  Ethiopia  (and  not  with 
northern  peoples  as  in  Ezek.  xxxix.  2)  accords  with  V.  505  f.,  where 
the  coming  of  the  last  things  follows  on  an  Ethiopian  invasion,  but 
is  not  found  elsewhere. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  61 

flict,  hard  and  terrible  :  a  dread  judgement  shall  there 
be  once  more,  and  ye  shall  all  be  driven  to  destruction, 
for  that  ye  laid  waste  the  holy  house  of  the  Immortal, 
and  gnawed  it  grievously  with  teeth  of  iron.  Therefore  330 
shalt  thou  see  thy  land  full  of  dead  bodies,  slain  by 
war,  by  every  onset  of  God,  by  famine  and  pestilence, 
and  by  foes  of  savage  heart  (or  of  strange  speech)  and 
all  thy  land  shall  be  desolate,  and  the  fortress  of  thy 
city  (or,  and  thy  cities  forsaken). 


334-336-  An  ora^e  </44  B.C.  (?). 
But  in  the  West  a  star  shall  shine,  which  men  will  call 
the  long-haired  star,  a  sign  of  the  sword,  of  famine  and  335 
death  to  men,  of  the  slaughterf  of  great  captains  and 
men  of  renown. 

337-355.  Hellenic  oracles. 

And  yet  again  there  shall  be  great  signs  among  men  ; 
for  deep-eddying  Tanais  shall  fail  from  the  lake  Maeotis, 
and  down  the  deep  stream-bed  shall  go  the  furrow  of  a 
fruitful  field,  and  the  river  shall  stay  its  many  branches.  340 
Chasms  and  yawning  gulfs  shall  break  open  ;  many  cities 
shall  fall  in  ruins  with  all  their  people  :  in  Asia,  lassus, 
Kebren,  Pandonia,|  Colophon,  Ephesus,  Nicaea,  Antioch, 

328.  the  holy  house  :  i.  e.  a  temple  in  Egypt,  not  that  at 
Jerusalem  ;  cf.  V.  507. 

334-6.  This  prediction  corresponds  with  the  circumstances  of 
B.C.  44,  and  may  have  been  suggested  by  them  ;  in  that  year,  after 
the  death  of  Julius  Caesar,  the  young  Octavian  celebrated  games  to 
Venus  Victrix,  in  commemoration  of  the  victory  of  Pharsalus  ; 
during  the  games  a  comet  of  exceptional  brightness  was  visible  for 
seven  days,  and  was  believed  to  be  the  soul  of  Ctesar.  Suetonius, 
fttlius  88,  Plin.  Aiz/.  Hist.  II.  94. 

338-349.  The  names  given  do  not  tally  with  the  records  of  any 
known  disaster,  such  as  that  mentioned  in  Tac.  Ann.  II.  47  ;  yet  it 
is  possible  that  the  writer  has  grouped  with  the  cities  actually  visited 
by  some  definite  calamity  others  known  to  have  been  so  affected  at 
some  time.  The  passage  defies  clear  explanation. 


62  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

345  Svagraj  Sinope,  Smyrna,  Myrine,f  Gaza  with  all  its  wealth, 
Hierapolis,  Astypalsea;  and  in  Europe  Cyagraf  renowned, 
f royal  Meropeia,  Antigone,  Magnesia,  jdivine  Mycene. 
Know  thou  then  that  the  doomed  race  of  Egypt  is  near 
its  ruin,  and  then  shall  they  of  Alexandria  wish  that  this 
year  was  as  last. 

350  For  all  the  wealth  that  Rome  took  from  tributary  Asia, 
three  times  as  much  shall  Asia  take  from  Rome,  re- 
quiting upon  her  her  cursed  arrogance :  and  for  all  the 
men  who  were  taken  from  Asia  to  go  and  dwell  in  Italy, 

355  twenty  times  so  many  men  of  Italy  shall  serve  in  Asia 
as  penniless  slaves,  and  a  thousand-fold  shall  be  the 
requital. 

356-380.  Jewish  oracles  against  Rome. 

Daughter  of  Latin  Rome,  clothed  in  gold  and  luxury, 
drunken  full  oft  with  thy  wedding  of  many  wooers,  thou 
shalt  be  a  slave-bride  in  dishonour,  and  oft  shall  thy 
360  mistress  cut  off  thy  flowing  hair,  and  do  justice  on  thee 
and  cast  thee  down  from  heaven  to  earth,  and  yet 
again  lift  thee  from  earth  to  heaven,  because  men  gave 
themselves  to  evil  and  unrighteous  living. 

And  Samos  shall  become  a  sand,  Delos  be  deleted, 
and  Rome  a  mere  alley ;  and  all  that  is  foretold  shall  be 

350-5.  From  the  Mithridatic  war  of  88  B.C.  ;  a  brief  allusion  to 
the  same  period  is  to  be  found  in  IV.  145-8. 

356-62.  If  this  oracle  against  Rome  is  a  continuation  of  the  pre- 
ceding lines,  it  must  owe  362  at  least  to  a  Jewish  reviser  ;  the  moral 
reason  for  the  downfall  of  Rome  is  by  no  means  in  the  spirit  of 

35«>-5- 

363  f.  Old  Hellenic  material  has  been  used  here  :  cf.  IV.  91  f. 
Geffck.  quotes  Callimachus,  Hymns  IV.  53  for  ArjAos  #5»jA.os.  The 
jingle  about  Samos  seems  to  have  no  assignable  meaning ;  but  if 
the  lines  come  from  the  time  of  the  Mithridatic  war  it  is  worth 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  63 

fulfilled;  but  none  shall  take  account  of  the  ruin  of 365 
Smyrna.  There  shall  be  an  avenger,  f  but  through  evil 
counsels  and  the  cowardice  of  her  captains  .  .  .  and 
calm  peace  shall  make  her  way  to  the  land  of  Asia  :  and 
Europe  then  shall  be  blessed,  the  air  fruitful  year  after 
year,  healthy,  without  frost  and  hail,  bringing  forth  beasts  370 
and  birds  and  creeping  things  of  the  earth.  Blessed 
shall  the  man  and  woman  be  who  lives  to  see  that  time,f 
as  are  they  who  dwell  in  the  isles  of  the  blest ;  |f°r  law 
and  justice  shall  come  from  the  starry  heaven  upon  men, 
and  with  them  wise  concord,  best  of  all  gifts  for  mortals, 
and  love  and  faith  and  hospitable  ways  ;  but  lawlessness,  375 
blame,  envy,  anger  and  madness  shall  depart.  Poverty 
and  penury  shall  flee  from  men  in  those  days,  with 
murder  and  accursed  strife  and  grievous  wrangling, 
theft  by  night  and  every  ill.  3^° 

381-387.  An  oracle  on  Alexander. 

But  Macedonia  shall  bring  forth  a  grievous  bane  for 
Asia,  and  for  Europe  a  great  woe  mature  its  fruit,  from 

noticing  that  Delos  was  laid  waste  hy  the  sea-forces  of  Mithridates 
in  89  B.C.  In  364  Kal  'POJ/XTJ  pvn.T)  is  modelled  on  the  assonances  of 
363.  Tertullian  (De  Pallia  2)  quotes  the  line  as  a  fulfilled  prophecy : 
"inter  insulas  nulla  iam  Delos,  harense  Samos,  et  Sibylla  non 
mendax." 

367  ff.  The  prophecy  of  peace  upon  Asia  may  belong  to  what 
precedes  it,  but  the  passage,  from  371  onwards,  has  a  Jewish  or 
Christian  rather  than  a  Hellenic  cast ;  cf.  619-23  infr. 

372.  Cf.  IV.  192.  But  the  text  (KfV€it<paros  oaaov  &ypav\os)  is  very 
corrupt.  Geffck.  suggests  an  elaborately  ingenious  conjecture, 
which  would  make  the  line  definitely  Christian — fuuefytn>  /cev  ?»? 
tpdrts  is  iv  a,ypav\ois — "  it  would  be  tidings  of  the  blessed  ones, 
as  among  the  shepherds." 

381-7.  An  oracle  on  Alexander  the  Great :  possibly  from  the 
Persian  Sibyl.  In  Nicanor's  Life  of  Alexander,  quoted  from  Varro 
by  Lactantius  (Inst.  I.  6,  8),  it  was  stated  that  this  Sibyl  foretold  the 
career  of  Alexander — in  no  favourable  terms,  as  it  may  be  supposed. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  acknowledged  the  divinity 
of  Alexander. 


64  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

the  sons  of  Kronos,  a  race  of  bastards  and  slaves.  That 
race  shall  subdue  the  strong-built  city  of  Babylon,  and 
385  having  been  called  mistress  of  every  land  which  the  sun 
looks  on  shall  perish  by  an  evil  fate,  and  shall  leave  a 
name  only  to  descendants  scattered  far  and  wide. 

388-400.  On  Antiochus  Epiphanes  (?). 

And  to  the  happy  shore  of  Asia  shall  come  a  man 
unheard  of  before,  f  having  a  purple  robe  cast  about  his 

388-400.  There  are  two  textual  difficulties  which  make  it  hard 
to  provide  any  satisfactory  interpretation  here,  (a)  In  397  the  MSS. 
have  iropa  8);  (8e)  <pvrov  &\\o  tyvreuffti;  but  in  XI.  251,  where  parts 
of  the  passage  reappear,  the  reading  is  irplv  5?j  KT\.  (t>)  In  399 
KO.VTUS  v(p"  vliav  itiv  is  o/j.ocppova  alaiov  &ppys  is  hopeless.  Geffck. 
suggests  if<f>'  viiavuv  tv  dpotppocrvvriffiv  "Aprjos. 

Three  lines  of  interpretation  may  be  mentioned — (l)  Hilgenfeld 
took  the  "  man"  of  1.  389  to  be  Aniiochus  Epiphanes,  who  put  an 
end  to  the  family  of  his  brother  Seleucus  IV.  :  while  a  son  of 
Seleucus,  Demetrius,  killed  Antiochus  V.,  Eupator,  the  only  de- 
scendant of  Ant.  Epiphanes.  The  ' '  other  shoot "  of  397  (following 
the  reading  of  the  MSS.)  is  Alexander  Balas;  the  "  warlike  sire" 
of  398  is  Demetrius  I. ;  the  "  sons  "  who  make  an  end  of  Alex.  Balas 
are  Demetrius  II.  and  Antiochus  Sidetes,  and  the  "  parasite  horn"  of 
400  is  the  usurper  Tryphon.  The  difficulties  in  this  theory  are  that 
it  requires  the  <pvro>>  of  397  to  become  the  subject  of  /coif ft  in  the 
following  line ;  and  that  Antiochus  Sidetes  had,  in  fact,  nothing  to 
do  with  the  downfall  of  Balas.  (2)  Geffcken's  solution  (making  the 
two  textual  changes  mentioned  above)  connects  the  passage  with 
Antiochus  Cyzicenus  and  his  struggles  against  his  half-brother 
Grypos  and  Grypos'  sons.  Cyzicenus  would  fain  destroy  the 
family  of  one  whose  sons  are  destined  to  destroy  his  own.  He  puts 
out  one  shoot,  Antiochus  Eusebes,  whom  Philip  the  descendant  of 
ten  kings,  strikes  down  before  another  is  planted  ;  and  though  he 
strikes  down  Grypos,  he  himself  is  the  victim  of  Grypos'  nephews. 

Here,  again,  two  obstacles  are  met  with  ;  for  Cyzicenus,  in  fact, 
fell  in  battle  against  the  Parthians  :  and,  as  Geffcken  admits,  vluvos 
does  not  mean  "nephew  "  but  "grandson." 

Thus  neither  (i)  nor  (2)  can  claim  to  be  a  consistent  solution  of 
the  difficulty.  As  far  as  1.  398  goes  (a  man  unheard  of  before),  one 
might  think  of  Demetrius  I.,  Antiochus  Cyzicenus,  or  Antioclms 
Epiphanes  with  equal  appropriateness,  for  each  of  these  made  a 
dramatic  and  sudden  appearance  in  Asia ;  but  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  any  other  Seleucid  than  Antiochus  Epiphanes  can  be 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  65 

shoulders,  fierce,  strange  in  judgement,  fiery ;  the  thun-  390 
der  was  his  sire :  and  all  Asia  shall  pass  under  the  yoke 
of  oppression,  and  the  earth  shall  drink  and  be  drenched 
with  streams  of  blood.     Yet  even  so  shall  he  pass  utterly 
out  of  knowledge,  and  death  shall  have  him  in  charge ; 
and  they  whose  children  he  would  fain  destroy,  by  their  395 
children  shall  his  line   be  destroyed ;  putting  out  one 
root,  which  the  Slayer  of  men  shall  cut  off,  from  among 
ten  heads,  before  it  genders  another  shoot :  he  shall  cut 
off  the  warlike  sire  of  the  race  bred  in  the  purple,  and 
perish  himself  at  the  hands  of  his  grandsons,  f  joined  in  a 
compact  of  war  f ;  and  then  a  horn,  an  off-shoot,  shall  400 
reign. 

401-488.  Miscellaneous  Hellenic  Oracles. 

To  fruitful  Phrygia  also  shall  a  sign  be  given,  when  the 
foul  race  of  Rhea,  an  ever-flowing  wave,  springing  from 
roots  in  the  earth  never  waterless,  is  utterly  abolished  in  405 
one  night,  in  the  city  of  Poseidon  the  earth-shaker,  and 
with  all  its  men,  the  city  which  they  shall  call  Dorylaeum 

intended  by  11.  388-391.  The  three  epithets  in  390  (the  last  half 
of  the  line,  one  may  admit,  is  incomprehensible)  can  all  be  illus- 
trated from  i  Mace.  i.  ;  and  since  the  whole  passage  is  partly  based 
on  Dan.  vii.  ff.,  which  refers  to  the  reign  of  Epiphanes,  one  might 
surmise  that  it  is  a  picture,  though  an  inaccurate  one,  of  the  same 
period.  While,  then,  in  its  present  obscure  and  corrupt  form, 
it  may  well  be  considerably  later  than  175-164  B.C.,  it  still  belongs, 
in  all  probability,  to  the  earliest  Jewish  stratum  of  the  book. 

(3)  Bousset  (in  Zeitschriftfiirneutestameniliche  Wissenschaft,  III., 
1902,  pp.  23  ff. )  would  partly  support  the  above,  holding  that  the 
passage  was  misunderstood  and  altered  by  the  Jewish  Sibyllist  so 
as  to  make  it  applicable  to  a  Seleucid  king.  But  he  believes  that 
all  the  material  comes  from  the  Chaldsean  (  =  Persian)  Sibyl,  and 
that  in  its  original  form  it  referred  to  Alexander  the  Great.  He 
points  out  that  "lightning  gave  him  birth,"  Asia  suffered  a  yoke, 
"  the  earth  drank  blood  when  he  came  "  ;  and  identifies  the  "  one 
root "  of  396  with  the  son  of  Alexander  and  Roxane. 

401-413.   On  Phrygia  :  obscure  and  impossible  to  translate. 


66  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

by  name,  in  ancient  Phrygia,  that  dark  and  lamentable 
land.  Until  that  time  he  who  is  called  earth-shaker 
shall  break  open  the  store-houses  of  the  earth  and  destroy 
410  fenced  cities.  But  the  signs  shall  be  the  beginning  of 
evil  and  not  of  good.  tTh°u(?)  shall  have  for  kings  men 
skilled  in  war  of  nations,  offspring  of  ^Eneas,  native  sons 
of  Ilium,  f  But  thereafter  thou  shalt  be  a  prey  to  men 
that  are  (thy)  lovers. 

415  Ilium,  I  pity  thee;  for  in  Sparta  an  avenging  fury 
shall  grow  up,  a  fair  and  goodly  shoot  of  renown,  to 
bring  a  spreading  wave  of  ruin  upon  Europe  and  Asia  : 
but  to  thee  above  all  shall  she  bring  lamentation,  sorrow 
and  groaning  as  thy  portion  ;  and  the  fame  of  it  shall  not 
grow  old  among  men  that  are  yet  to  be. 

420  And  an  old  man  shall  there  be,  a  writer  of  falsehood, 
false  to  his  country  ;  his  eyes  shall  be  sightless  ;  he  will 
have  a  cunning  mind,  and  words  well  fitting  his  thoughts 
(or,  rhythm  of  verse  to  clothe  his  thoughts)  blended  of 
two  names  ;  he  shall  call  himself  a  man  of  Chios,  and 
shall  write  the  tale  of  Ilium,  not  truly,  but  with  cunning, 


407.  Dark  (KeAcHXTjj)  :  according  to  Wilamowitz  this  is  an 
ancient  oracle  on  Celaense,  transferred  by  the  interpolation  of  1.  406 
to  Dorylseum. 

414-428.  That  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  (or  the  Delphic)  was  earlier 
than  or  contemporary  with  the  Trojan  war,  that  she  foretold  it,  and 
that  Homer  borrowed  unscrupulously  from  her  prophecies,  was 
widely  believed  in  antiquity.  These  lines  appear  to  be  the  basis 
of  the  tradition.  For  the  references  in  Varro,  Pausanias,  etc.,  see 
Alexandre,  II.  12  f,  and  App.  to  Exc.  I. 

412.  There  is  a  trace  here  of  the  tradition  that  Ericas  and  his 
descendants  reigned  in  the  Troad  down  to  Homeric  times  :  cf. 
Horn.  //.  307  f.  (vvv  5<  8)j  AtWoo  /3/Tj  Tp&eaaiv  dctiftj  KO.\  irafouv 
irotSej  KT\),  and  Hdt.  V.  122. 

414.  a  fury,  i.e.  Helen:  cf.  ./Esch.  Ag.  749;  Eur.  Or.  1390 
Verg.  ALn.  ii.  573  ;  Troiae  et  patrise  Communis  Erinys. 

422.  two  names,  i.e.  7/zarfand  Odyssey, 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  67 

for  he  shall  take  my  words  and  measures  for  his  use,  and  425 
be  the  first  to  open  and  handle  my  books.     He  shall 
bravely  deck  out  the  armed  men  of  war,  Hector  son  of 
Priam,  Achilles  son  of  Peleus,  and  the  rest  whose  care  is 
for  the  works  of  warfare.     He  will  make  the  gods  come 
to  their  aid,  picturing  them  most  falsely  as  witless  mortals.  430 
And  to  them  death  at  Ilium  shall  bring  the  greater  fame : 
but  he  shall  reap  the  reward  of  his  own  works. 

And  for  Lycia  the  race  of  Locrus  shall  breed  much  ill. 
Thee,  Chalcedon,  who  boldest  the  passage  of  the  narrow 
strait,  shall  a  child  of  ^Etolia  devastate  at  his  coming.  435 

Cyzicus,  from  thee  the  sea  shall  break  off  the  weight 
of  thy  wealth ;  thou,  Byzantium,  shalt  choose  to  make 
war  in  Asiaf ;  truly  groaning  and  endless  blood  shall  be 
thy  portion. 

From   thy  peaks,  Kragos,  high   mountain   of  Lycia,  440 
water  shall  gush  out,  when  thy  rocks  split  asunder,  until 
it  put  an  end  to  the  oracular  signs  of  Patara, 

Cyzicus,  dweller  on  vine-clad  Propontis,  Rhyndacus 
shall  dash  his  stream  about  thee  in  a  swelling  wave. 

And  thou,  Rhodes,  for  long  shalt  thou  keep  thy 
freedom,  thou  short-lived  daughter,  and  much  wealth  445 
shall  be  thine  hereafter,  and  in  the  sea  thou  shalt  have 
power  beyond  others  :  yet  thereafter  shalt  thou  be  a  prey 
to  men  that  are  thy  lovers,  with  thy  wealth  and  beauty, 
and  a  heavy  yoke  shalt  thou  have  set  upon  thy  neck. 

432.  reap  :  Wilamowitz'  conclusive  emendation  Several  for  MSS. 
At'lerat. 

444  ff.  A  clue  to  these  lines  may  perhaps  be  looked  for  in  the 
events  of  169  B.C.  The  Rhodians,  after  a  century  and  a  half  of 
friendship  with  Rome,  and  a  period  of  high  commercial  prosperity, 
were  misled  into  siding  against  Rome  in  the  middle  of  the  war 
with  Perseus  ;  and  for  this  they  were  visited  with  crushing  penalties 
at  the  end  of  the  war. 

449.  This  line  must  refer  to  the  Ionian  revolt  of  499  B.C.,  which 


68  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

A  Lydian  earthquake  shall  destroy  the  land  of  Persia, 

45°  and  bring  horrible  woes  upon  Europe  and  Asia.  I  The 
murderous  king  of  Sidon,  and  the  war-cry  of  strange  sea- 
farers, shall  fall  on  the  Samians,  and  they  shall  come  to  a 
fatal  doom.  The  ground  shall  run  with  blood  of  the 
slain  down  to  the  sea;  wives  with  their  fair-robed 

455  daughters  shall  bewail  their  dishonour  and  shame,  these 
weeping  for  their  |  fathers,  these  for  their  sons. 

A  sign  upon  Cyprus ;  an  earthquake  shaking  the  troops 
in  array,  and  many  souls  at  once  shall  Hades  receive. 
Tralles   the  neighbour  of  Ephesus  —  an  earthquake 

460  shall  destroy  both  the  well-built  walls  and  the  wealth 
of  a  troubled  people ;  the  earth  shall  spout  up  water 
boiling  hot ;  the  groaning  earth  shall  swallow  them 
down,  with  a  smell  of  brimstone. 

Samos  too  on  a  time  shall  build  a  royal  palace. 
Upon   thee,  Italy,  no   warfare  of  foreign   foes   shall 

465  come,  but  civil  bloodshed  lamentable  and  of  long  con- 
tinuance shall  ravish  thee,  thou  famous  land,  for  thy 
shamelessness.  And  thou,  stretched  prone  among  the 
burning  ashes,  shalt  slay  thyself,  in  thy  improvident 
heart.  Thou  shalt  be  no  mother  of  good  men,  but  a 
nurse  of  wild  beasts. 

470  But  when  from  Italy  shall  come  a  man  of  destruction, 
then  thou,  Laodicea,  fair  city  of  the  Carians,  by  the 

began  with  the  taking  of  Sardis,  and  was  the  prelude  to  the  great 
struggle  between  Hellas  and  Persia.  The  following  lines  defy 
interpretation. 

464  ff.  civil  bloodshed:  i.e.  in  the  Social  War,  91-89  B.C.,  or 
in  the  Sullan  troubles. 

470.  The  "  man  of  destruction  "  may  be  Sulla,  and  the  time  that 
of  the  Mithridatic  war.  Laodicea  was  often  damaged  by  earth- 
quakes :  cf.,  IV.  107,  V.  290  ;  for  references,  and  for  the  description 
of  Laodicea  as  a  Carian  city,  see  Lightfoot,  Colossians  38  note, 
1 8  note.  The  "father"  of  the  city  is  Zeus,  the  tutelary  deity  of  the 
place,  from  whom  its  earlier  name  of  Diospolis  had  been  tnken. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  69 

wondrous  water  of  Lycus,  shalt  fall  headlong  and  lament 
in  silence  thy  proud-vaunting  father. 

And  the  Thracian  Krobyzi  shall  rise  up  on  Haemus. 

The  Campanians  shall  gnash  their  teeth  for  the  famine  475 
that  ravages  their  city,  and  for  many  a  year  (shall  they 
lament  their  father). 

Corsica  and  Sardinia  shall  be  sunk  below  the  depths 
of  the  sea  by  great  blasts  of  storm-winds,  by  the  smiting 
of  the  holy  god,  a  great  wonder  f  for  the  children  of  the 
sea.  Ah,  for  how  many  maidens  shall  death  be  their  480 
bridal,  how  many  youths  unburied  shall  toss  in  the 
deep :  ah,  for  little  children  and  great  wealth,  washed 
away  by  the  sea  ! 

Thou   happy   land   of  Mysia,  thy  royal   house  shall 
suddenly  f  pass  away ;  yet  for  no  long  time  shall  Carthage  485 
(?  Chalcedon)  endure.     Lamentable  woe  shall  befall  the 
Galatians :  to  Tenedos  the  last  of  ills,  but  the  greatest 
shall  come. 

Sicyon  with  brazen  trumpetings  shall  boast  her  loudest 
over  thee,  Corinth  ;  but  the  flute  shall  give  back  the 
same  note  in  answer. 

Now   when   my   soul    had    ceased    from    the   hymn 
inspired,  then  again  did  the  voice  of  the  great  God  rise  490 
in  my  breast,  bidding  me  prophesy  over  the  earth. 

Woe  to  the  people  of  Phoenicia,  men  and  women, 
and  to  all  the  cities  of  the  coast ;  not  one  of  you  shall 

483.  The  "royal  House  of  Mysia"  came  to  an  end  in  133  B.C., 
when  the  Romans  took  over  the  kingdom,  which  Attalus  III.  had 
bequeathed  to  them. 

487-8.  An  obscure  reference  to  events  connected  with  the  down- 
fall of  Corinth  in  146  B.C.  In  that  year  the  Corinthian  territory 
was  put  under  Sicyon.  The  end  of  488  is  inexplicable,  but  has 
a  flavour  of  antiquity. 

492-503.  A  Jewish  oracle  against  Phoenicia,  in  the  spirit  of  Isaiah 
xxiii.,  Jer.  xlvii.,  Ezek.  xxvi-xxviii.  ;  possibly  reflecting  the  anti- 


70  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

495  remain  in  the  light  of  the  sun,  the  common  day,  nor 
shall  any  be  numbered  among  the  living,  nor  any  tribe 
survive,  by  reason  of  their  unrighteous  speech,  their 
lawless  and  unholy  life,  which  they  all  led,  opening 
unholy  lips  ;  and  dreadful  words,  false  and  wicked  did 
they  spread  abroad,  and  stood  up  against  the  great  king, 

500  even  God,  and  opened  their  mouths  foully  to  speak 
falsehood.  Therefore  He  shall  bring  them  down  with 
awful  visitations  over  all  the  earth,  and  shall  send  them 
a  bitter  doom,  burning  their  cities  and  their  foundations 
down  to  the  ground. 

Woe  to  thee,  Crete,  isle  of  sorrows :  a  blow  shall  fall 

505  on  thee  and  a  dread  eternal  destruction,  and  the  whole 
earth  shall  see  thy  smoke  going  up ;  fire  shall  not  cease 
from  thee  for  ever,  but  thou  shalt  be  burnt. 

Woe  to  thee,  Thrace  :  thou  shalt  bear  the  yoke  of 
slavery,  when  the  Galatians  joined  to  the  men  of  Dar- 

510  dania  shall  ravage  Hellas  in  their  onset :  then  it  shall 
go  ill  with  thee  :  thou  shall  give  f  to  a  foreign  land  and 
take  nothing. 

Woe  to  thee,  Gog,  and  to  all  the  people  of  Magog 
thereafter  ...  f  for  all  the  evil  that  Fate  brings  upon 
thee  from  Mardians  and  Drangians  f  and  much  evil  to 

515  the  children  of  Lycia,  Mysia,  and  Phrygia ;  many  tribes 
of  Pamphylians,  Lydians,  Morians,f  Ethiopians,  and  bar- 
barous peoples,  Cappadocians  and  Arabians  shall  fall ; 
why  tell  of  each  thing  in  order  ?  for  to  all  nations  that 

Philistine  sentiment  of  the  Maccahean  period,  and  (502  f.)  such 
episodes  as  the  burning  of  Azotus  and  Gaza  by  Jonathan  (i  Mace. 
x.  84,  xi.  61). 

508  ff.  Referred  by  Geffck.  to  a  war  waged  by  Eumenes  of  Per- 
gamuni  against  Macedonia  with  the  aid  of  Gaulish  auxiliaries  in 
1 68  B.C. 

513.  Geffck.  thus  amends  the  unintelligible  papffuv  1j&  &yyuv 
(bdywv)  of  the  MSS.  Mardians  and  Drangians  were  both  Persian 
tribes. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  71 

dwell  on  the  earth  shall  the  most  High  send  a  dread 
stroke  of  calamity. 

520-572.   The  misery  of  Hellas  under  Roman 
domination. 

But  when  once  more  a  barbarian  host  comes  against  520 
Hellas,  it  shall  destroy  many  chosen  men;  and  many 
fat  flocks  shall  they  ravage,  herds  of  horses,  mules  and 
lowing  oxen;  strongly- built  houses  will  they  burn  with  fire 
without  scruple,  and  many  will  they  carry  away  as  slaves  525 
to   a  strange   land,  children  and  deep-girdled  women, 
tender   ones   taken   from   their   chambers,    who   before 
walked  (or,  could  scarce  stand)  on  delicate  feet ;  they 
shall  see  them  bound  and  suffering  utmost  shame  at  the 
hands  of  barbarous  foes,  nor  shall  there  be  any  to  aid  530 
them  in  the  stress  of  war,  and  to  rescue  them  alive. 
They  shall  see  the  enemy  making  a  spoil  of  their  goods 
and   all    their  wealth :    their  knees   shall   tremble.     A 
hundred  shall  flee,  and  one  shall  slay  the  hundred ;  five 
shall  stir  up  heavy  wrath ;  and  they  that  join  against  535 
them  in  shameful  war  and  dread  din  of  battle  shall  bring 
joy  to  the  foe  but  sorrow  to  Hellas. 

The  yoke  of  slavery  shall  be  on  the  neck  of  all 
Hellas ;  and  on  all  men  together  war  and  pestilence 
shall  be  laid  :  and  God  shall  make  the  whole  heaven  as 
brass  above,  and  send  drought  upon  the  whole  earth,  54° 
and  it  shall  be  as  iron.  Then  will  men  all  lament  sore 
for  the  failure  of  seed-time  and  ploughing ;  and  He  who 

520  ff.  Whether  all  this  refers  to  the  Achaean  war,  and  the  sack 
of  Corinth  in  146  B.C.,  or  to  the  horrors  of  Sulla's  campaigns  in 
Greece,  it  is  impossible  to  determine. 

527.  on  delicate  feel :  cf.  Deut.  xxviii.  56- 

533.  Cf.  Isaiah  xxx.  17,  Deut.  xxxii.  30. 

539.  Cf.  Deut.  xxviii.  23,  24;  IV.  (II.)  Esdr.  vi.  22,  also  647 
infr.,  V.  276. 


72  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

made  heaven  and  earth  shall  kindle  grievous  fire  upon 
earth,f  and  but  the  third  part  of  all  mankind  shall  be 
left. 

545  O  Hellas,  why  trustest  thou  for  leadership  in  mortal 
men,  who  cannot  escape  the  end  of  death  ?  Why  dost 
thou  offer  vain  gifts  to  the  dead,  and  do  sacrifice  to 
idols?  Who  put  this  error  in  thy  heart,  to  do  these 
things  and  to  forsake  the  face  of  the  great  God? 

550  Revere  the  name  of  the  Father  of  all,  and  forget  it  not. 
A  thousand  years  and  five  hundred  more  have  passed 
since  proud  kings  began  to  reign  over  Hellas,  who  led 
men  in  the  first  steps  of  evil,  setting  up  many  idols  of 

555  dead  gods,  whereby  ye  were  led  to  think  vain  thoughts. 
But  when  the  wrath  of  the  great  God  falls  upon  you, 
then  shall  ye  know  the  face  of  the  great  God,  and  all 
souls  of  men,  deeply  wailing,  holding  up  their  hands 

560  to  the  broad  heaven,  shall  begin  to  call  upon  the  great 
King  as  their  helper,  and  to  seek  who  shall  save  them 
from  the  great  wrath. 

Come,  learn  this  and  have  it  in  mind,  all  the  woes 
that  shall  come  as  year  follows  year  .  .  .  fand  when 

565  thou  offerest  herds  of  oxen  and  lowing  bulls  at  the 
temple  of  the  great  God,  making  a  whole  burnt-offering, 

544.  Cf.  Zech.  xiii.  8. 

551.  In  822  ff.  the  Sibyl  is  contemporary  with  the  flood;  the 
writer  of  this  passage  dates  himself  as  living  1500  years  after  the 
invention  of  idolatry  in  Hellas  by  its  kings.  If  this  means  1500 
years  after  Cecrops,  this  brings  him  down  to  about  loo  B.C. 

557.  the  wrath  :  Isaiah  xiii.  9. 

558.  Cf.  Rev.  i.  7  f. 

564  ff.  This  passage,  taken  together  with  6i6ff.,  624  ff.,  716  ff., 
represents  a  hope  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  which  has  not 
many  parallels  in  apocalyptic  literature.  It  goes  beyond  the  con- 
ception of  the  nations,  as  vassals,  bringing  tribute  to  the  temple 
(Isaiah,  lx.,  Zech.  xiv.  16,  Ps.  Sol.  xvii.  31).  But  cf.  Tobit  xiii.  II, 
xiv.  6,  Enoch  90.  33  ff.,  48.  4,  5,  Apoc.  Abr.  29:  and  contrast 
Sib.  V.  364. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  73 

then  thou  shalt  escape  from  the  noise  of  war,  from  fear 
and  pestilence,  and  be  free  once  more  from  the  yoke 
of  slavery.  But  the  race  of  godless  men  shall  continue, 
until  the  time  when  this  destined  day  is  accomplished. 
For  ye  will  not  sacrifice  to  God  till  all  come  to  pass,  570 
all  that  God  shall  determine,  which  shall  not  fail  of 
fulfilment :  strong  necessity  shall  be  upon  you. 

Thereafter  shall  there  be  a  holy  race  of  god-fearing 
men,  paying  heed  to  the  counsel  and  mind  of  the  most 
High,  who  will  pay  honour  to  the  temple  of  the  great  575 
God,  with  the  fat  and  savour  of  holy  hecatombs,  with 
sacrifices  of  fat   bulls  and   rams  without  blemish,  the 
first-born  of  sheep  and  fat  flocks  of  lambs  making  holy 
oblations  upon  the  great  altar.     And  having  their  portion  580 
in  the  righteousness  of  the  law  of  the  most  High  they 
shall  inhabit  in  well-being  their  houses  and  fruitful  fields, 
with  prophets  raised  up  for  them  by  the  most  High, 
bringing  great  joy  to  all  people.     For  to  them  alone  the 
high  God  gave  wise  counsel  and  faith  and  an  excellent  585 
wisdom  of  heart :    who  use  not  vain  deceit,  nor  give 
honour  to  the  works   of  men   that   fashion  images  of 
gold,  brass,  silver,  ivory,  wood  and  stone,  things  of  clay 
smeared   with   vermilion,  painted   in  the   fashion  of  a 
likeness  such  as   mortals  make  in  the  vanity  of  their  egO 
mind ;  but  they  lift  up  to  heaven  holy  hands,  rising  early 
from  their  beds  to  hallow  their  hands  with  water,  and 
they  honour  the  immortal  eternal  Ruler  alone,  and  after 

591.  Lifting  up  holy  hands :  cf.  Ps.  cxxxiv.  3,  i  Tim.  ii.  8,  and 
Bernard's  note  in  Camb.  Gk.  Test.,  which  gives  the  parallel  from 
Philo  de  Hum.,  2,  rctr  KaSaphs  xe'Pas  6I*  ovpavkv  avaretvas. 

592.  For  the  insistence  on  ceremonial  washing,  which  is  Pharisaic 
in  character  rather  than  Essene,  cf.  IV.  165,  where,  however,  the 
reference  is  to  the  baptism  of  proselytes.     With  this  line  one  may 
compare  Tertullian's  bitter  saying  (De  Bapt.  xv.  cf.  De  Oraf.  \\.\ 
Israel  ludseus  quotidie  lavat  quia  quotidie  inquinatur. 


74  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

Him  their  father  and  mother ;  moreover  above  all  men 

595  they  are  mindful  to  keep  the  bed  undefiled ;  they  have 
no  unholy  intercourse  with  boys,  as  do  the  Phoenicians, 
Egyptians,  the  Latins  and  wide  Hellas  and  many  nations 
besides,  the  Persians,  Galatians  and  them  of  all  Asia, 

600  transgressing  the  holy  'law  of  the  immortal  God,  which 
He  gave.f  Wherefore  the  Immortal  shall  appoint  for  all 
men  sorrow  and  famine  and  lamentations  and  woe,  war  and 
pestilence  and  misery  with  weeping,  for  that  they  would 

605  not  honour  in  sanctity  the  immortal  Father  of  all  men, 
but  gave  honour  and  worship  to  idols  the  work  of  men's 
hands,  which  men  themselves  shall  cast  away,  hiding 
them  for  shame  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks,  in  the  day 
when  a  young  king  rules  in  Egypt,  counted  seventh  in 

610  succession  from  the  rule  of  the  Greeks,  which  the  Mace- 
donians that  mighty  people  shall  bear ;  and  there  shall 
come  from  Asia  a  great  king,  a  bright  eagle,  who  shall 
overshadow  all  the  land  with  footmen  and  horse,  and 
break  up  all  in  ruin  and  fill  it  with  evils,  and  shall  cast 

615  down  the  kingdom  of  Egypt;  and  taking  away  all  its 
goods  shall  ride  upon  the  broad  waves  of  the  sea. 
Then  shall  they  bend  the  naked  knee  to  God  the  great 
king  immortal  on  the  fruitful  earth,  and  all  the  works 
of  men's  hands  shall  fall  in  the  flame  of  fire.  And  then 

601.  For  the  connection  of  unnatural  vice,  idolatry,  and  sub- 
sequent punishment,  cf.  Rom.  ii  24  ff. 

606.  Cf.   Isaiah  ii.  18  (LXX). 

608.  The  seventh  king  (from  Ptolemy  son  of  Lagus)  is  Ptolemy 
Philometor,  181-146  B  C. 

611.  The  "great  king"  is  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who  invaded 
Egypt  and  deposed  Ptolemy  Philometor  in  170  B.C. 

6l6  f.   Cf.  564  above. 

619  ff.  Cf.  368  ff.,  659  flf.,  744  ff.,  IV.  45-6,  187,  Enoch  10.  18  ff., 
Apoc.  Bar.  29.  5-7,  Philo  de  Praem.  et  Pcen.  16.  20 ;  for  sources 
in  O.T.,  e.g.  Deut.  vii.  13,  Isaiah  xi.  6  ff.,  Ixv.  21  ff.,  Joel  ii.  22, 
and  for  Rabbinical  references,  Bousset,  R.  /.  227  note.  The 
Messianic  period  is  here  conceived  as  an  age  of  peace  and  plenty  on 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  75 

shall  God  give  great  joy  to  men ;  for  the  earth,  the  trees,  620 
and  the  full  flocks  of  sheep  shall  give  their  proper  fruit 
for  men,   wine  and  honey  and   white  milk,  and   corn 
which  is  the  best  of  all  gifts  to  mortals. 

But  thou,  O  man  of  many  counsels,  make  no  slow  625 
delay,   but  turn  again  and  make  propitiation  to  God ; 
sacrifice  to  Him  hundreds  of  bulls  and  lambs  first-born, 
and  of  goats,  as  the  seasons  go  round  ;  propitiate  Him, 
the  immortal  God,  if  haply  He  may  have  mercy  :  for  He 
is  God  alone,  and  there  is  no  other.     Honour  righteous-  630 
ness  and  deal  oppressively  with  no  man ;  for  this  the 
ever-living  commands  to  wretched  mortals.    But  be  thou 
ware  of  the  wrath  of  the  great  God,  when  the  end,  even 
pestilence,  comes  to  all  mankind,  and  they  are  brought 
low  under  the  terror  of  judgement ;  and  one  king  shall  635 
take  another  and  take  away  his  land,  and  nation  shall 
lay  nation  waste,  and  tyrants  the  people,  and  the  cap- 
tains shall  all  flee  into  another  land,  and  the  world  of 
men  shall  be  changed,  and  a  foreign  rule  shall  lay  waste 
all  Hellas  and  drain  the  fruitful  land  of  wealth,  and  they  640 
shall  come  to  strife  one  with  another  for  gold  and  silver 
— love  of  gain  shall  be  the  evil  shepherd  of  the  cities — 
in  a  strange  land ;    and  all  shall  be  unburied,  and  the 
flesh  of  some  shall  vultures  rend,  and  wild  beasts  of  the 
field  ;  when  this  is  come  to  pass,  the  terrible  earth  shall  645 
swallow  the  remnants  of  the  dead ;  it  shall  all  be  un- 
ploughed,  and   unsown,  proclaiming   in  its   misery  the 

the  earth  as  it  is:  so  in  Eth.  Enoch  I.  36.  Similar  versions  of 
temporal  felicity  recur  in  such  Chiliastic  pictures  as  that  of  Papias 
(ap.  Iren.  V.  33),  as  also  in  Verg.  Eel.  IV.  28-30. 

629.  Cf.  Deut.  iv.  35,  Isaiah  xlv.  5. 

636.    Cf.   Apoc.    Bar.    70.    3,    IV.    (II.)    Esdr.    vi.   24,    etc. 
Mk.  xiii.  8. 

643-5.  Cf.  Ezek.  xxxix.  4. 

647.  unsown  :  cf.  on  539  supr. 


76  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

pollution  with  which  thousands  are  denied  ...   for 

650  many  seasons  of  revolving  years  bringing  forth  spears 
and  shields,  javelins  and  all  manner  of  weapon  :  nor 
shall  wood  for  bright  fire  be  cut  from  the  thicket. 

And  then  shall  God  send  from  the  sun  a  king,  who 
shall  make  all  the  earth  cease  from  ruinous  war,  killing 

655  some,  and  with  some  making  a  sure  agreement.  Nor 
shall  he  do  all  this  by  his  own  counsel,  but  in  obedience 
to  the  ordinances  of  the  high  God  .  .  .  and  the  temple 
of  the  high  God  shall  be  loaded  with  rich  adornment, 
with  gold  and  silver  and  furniture  of  purple;  and  the 

660  fruitful  earth  and  sea  shall  abound  in  good  things.  And 
kings  shall  begin  to  have  wrath  one  against  another, 
harbouring  revengeful  thoughts.  No  good  thing  is  envy 
to  hapless  mortals.  But  again  shall  kings  of  the  Gentiles 
make  onset  together  against  this  land,  bringing  doom 

665  upon  themselves ;  for  they  shall  seek  to  lay  waste  the 
temple  of  the  great  God,  and  upright  men,  when  they  reach 
this  land.  Accursed  kings  will  set  each  his  throne  around 
the  city,  and  with  each  will  be  his  infidel  people.  Then 

'  649.  There  is  a  gap  before  this  line,  which  refers  to  the  duration 
of  the  Messianic  age ;  it  appears  to  be  temporal  here  and  728, 
755-6,  but  not  clearly  so  in  785  ff. :  in  767  it  is  to  last  "forages." 

649-51.  a  paraphrase  of  Ezek.  xxxix.  gf.  ;  cf.  V.  728  ff. 

652  ff.  The  Warrior-Messiah  who  makes  an  end  of  war  :  cf.  Apoc. 
Bar.  36—40,  53—74.  For  Pagan  parallels,  and  especially  the  Priene 
inscription  (Augustus  as  saviour  and  peace-maker),  Bousset,  Jf.  J. 

212. 

655.  Cf.  John  v.  19. 

657.  vaos  is  a  certain  emendation  for  the  MSS.  Xao'i.  The 
renewal  of  the  glory  of  the  temple  is  a  constant  element  in  the 
pictures  of  the  Messianic  age,  e.g.  I  Enoch  90.  28,  Jub.  I.  17, 
Tobit  xiii.  16,  xiv.  5.  The  O.T.  basis  of  this  hope  is  in  Ezek.  xl.— 
xliv.,  Isaiah  liv.  n  ft.,  Hagg.  ii.  7-9,  Zech.  ii.  5-9,  etc.  It  assumed 
new  forms  after  70  A.D.  ;  cf.  Sib.  V.,  250  ff.,  420  ff. 

660.   Cf.  IV.  (II.)  Esdr.  xiii.  31. 

638-8.  For  the  gathering  of  the  kings  against  the  Messiah,  cf. 
Jer.  i.  15,  Ps.  ii.,  Zech.  xiv.  2,  Enoch  90.  16-19,  IV.  (II.),  Esdr. 
xiii.  34,  Rev.  xvii.  12. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  77 

will  God  speak  to  each  people  of  vain  and  uninstructed  670 
mind,  and  their  judgement  shall  come  from  the  high 
God,  and  they  shall  all  perish  at  the  hand  of  the  ever- 
living.    Fiery  swords  shall  fall  from  heaven  on  the  earth  : 
great   flashing  torches,  flaming   through   the   midst   of 
them  ;   and  the   earth,  mother  of  all  things,  shall   be  675 
shaken  in  those  days  by  the  hand  of  the  Immortal,  and 
the  fishes  of  the  sea  and  all  the  beasts  of  the  earth  and 
the  myriad  tribes  of  birds,  and  every  soul  of  man  and 
every  sea  shall  shudder  before  the  face  of  the  Immortal, 
and  there  shall  be  great  fear.     He  shall  break  asunder  680 
the  craggy  peaks  of  the  mountains  and  the  great  hills, 
and  a  dark  cloud  shall  overshadow  all;  and  the  high 
gullies  in  the  lofty  mountains  shall  be  full  of  dead  :  and 
the  rocks  shall  run  with  blood,  and  every  torrent  shall 
fill  the  plain  with  it.     And  all  the  strong-built  walls  of  685 
the  enemy  shall  fall  down,  because  they  knew  not  the 
judgement  of  the  great  God,  but  ye  did  all  rush  to  take 
up   spears  in  your  folly  against  the  holy  place.     And 
God  shall  give  judgement  upon  all,  by  war,  by  the  sword, 
by  fire  and   drenching  rain ;    and  brimstone  shall  fall  690 
from  heaven,  with  stones  of  hail  great  and  grievous  :  and 
death  shall  overtake  the  four-footed  beasts.     And  then 
shall  they  know  the  ever-living  God  who  judges  thus ; 
and   through   the  width  of  the  earth  shall  sound  the 
wailing  and  mourning  of  perishing  men ;   and  all  the  695 
unholy  shall  be  bathed  in  blood :   the  very  earth  shall 
drink  the  blood  of  the  slain,  and  the  beasts  shall  be 
glutted  with  their  flesh.     All  these  things  did  the  great 
and  eternal  God  bid  me  foretell ;  and  this  shall  not  lack 

675  ff.  based  on  Ezek.  xxxviii.  20  ff. 
682-4.  Cf.  Judith  ii.  8. 
689.  Cf.  Rev.  ix.  17,  etc. 

692.  hail:  cf.  Rer.  xvi.  21. 

693.  then  shall  they  know :  cf.  Ezek.  xxxviii.  23. 


78  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

700  fulfilment  and  consummation :  enough  that  His  mind 
has  counselled  it ;  for  the  Spirit  of  God  is  in  the  world 
a  spirit  of  truth. 

But  all  the  sons  of  the  high  God  shall  dwell  peaceably 
round  the  temple,  rejoicing  in  that  which  the  creator,  the 

7°5  righteous  sovereign  judge,  shall  give  them.  For  He  shall 
stand  by  them  as  a  shelter  in  His  greatness,  as  though 
He  walled  them  in  with  a  wall  of  flaming  fire ;  they  shall 
be  at  peace  in  their  cities  and  lands.  No  hand  of  evil 
war  shall  stir  against  them,  but  the  Immortal  shall  be 

710  their  champion,  and  the  hand  of  the  holy  one.  Then  all 
the  isles  and  cities  shall  say — how  greatly  the  immortal 
God  loves  those  men,  for  all  things  fight  for  them  and 
aid  them,  the  heaven,  the  sun  God's  chariot,  and  the 

7r5  noon.  They  shall  sing  with  their  mouths  this  hymn  of 
sweetness  :  "  O  come,  let  us  all  bow  to  the  ground  to 
supplicate  the  King  immortal,  the  great  and  eternal 
God ;  let  us  send  gifts  to  His  sanctuary,  for  He  is  Lord 
alone  :  and  let  us  all  pay  heed  to  the  law  of  God  most 

720  high,  who  is  the  most  righteous  of  all  on  the  earth.  But 
we  had  gone  astray  from  the  path  of  the  Immortal, 
honouring  in  our  foolishness  the  work  of  men's  hands, 
even  idols  and  graven  images  of  men  that  perish."  Thus 

725  the  souls  of  the  faithful  shall  cry  aloud.  ["  Come,  let  us 
fall  on  our  face  in  the  house  of  God,  and  rejoice  in  our 
houses  to  hymn  our  God  and  Father ;  and  let  us  take  to 
ourselves  the  arms  of  our  enemies  throughout  the  earth, 
for  seven  times  of  revolving  years,  shields  and  bucklers, 

730  helmets  and  all  manner  of  gear,  and  much  plenty  of  bows 
and  spears  and  javelins  ;  for  wood  shall  not  be  cut  from 
the  thicket  for  burning  in  the  fire."] 

706.  a  -wall  offirt :  cf.  Zech.  ii.  5. 

7i6ff.  Reminiscences  of  Ps.  xcv. 

721  f.  Cf.  Ps.  Sophocles  in  Bus.  Pr<zp.  Ev.  XIII.  xiii.  p.  680. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  79 

But  thou,  poor  Hellas,  cease  from  proud  thoughts ; 
entreat   the   Immortal,  the  great-hearted,  and   beware. 
Send  notf  to  this  city  thy  foolish  people,  nor  whoso  is  735 
not   of  the  holy  land   of  the  great  God.      Move  not 
Camarina,  for  unmoved  it  is  better :    nor  the  leopard 
from  its  lair,  lest  evil  befall  thee.     Refrain  thyself,  and 
keep  not  a  haughty  spirit  of  pride  in  thy  heart,   nor 
embark  on  a  hard  struggle.     Serve  the  high  God,  that  740 
thou  mayest  have  a  portion  in  these  things. 

But  when  this  destined  day  is    fully  come  [and  the 
judgement  of  immortal  God  comes  upon  men],  a  great 
rule  (or  beginning)  and  judgement  shall  come  upon  men. 
For  the  fertile  earth  shall  yield  her  best  fruit  of  corn  and  745 
wine  and  oil  [and  sweet  honey  from  heaven  for  drink, 
trees  bearing  fruit  after  their  kind,  flocks  of  sheep,  oxen, 
lambs  and  kids  of  the  goats] ;    it  shall  gush  out  in  sweet 
fountains  of  white  milk  :  the  cities  shall  be  full  of  good  750 
things,  and  the  fields  with  fatness  ;  no  sword  shall  come 
against  the  land,  nor  shout  of  war ;  nor  shall  the  earth 
again  be  shaken,  deeply  groaning  :  no  war  nor  drought 
shall  afflict  the  land,  no  dearth  nor  hail  to  spoil  the 
crops,  but  deep  peace  over  all  the  earth  ;  king  shall  live  755 
as   friend   to   king  to  the  bound  of  the  age,  and  the 
Immortal  shall  establish  in  the  starry  heaven  one  law 
for  men  over  all  the  face  of  the  earth  for  all  the  doings 
of  hapless  mortals.     For  He  alone  is  God,  and  there  is  760 
no  other ;  He  too  will  burn  up  with  fire  the  might  (race) 
of  stubborn  men. 

732-40.  This  warning  to  Hellas,  not  to  invade  the  holy  city,  may 
date  from  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  It 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  worked  into  the  context  by  the  addition  of 
733  (entreat  the  Immortal  .  .  .  )  and  740  (serve  the  high  God, 
etc). 

736-7.  Note  how  an  ancient  Greek  proverb  is  balanced  with  a 
parallel  clause,  in  the  manner  of  Hebrew  poetry. 

744  ff.  see  on  620  ff.  above. 


8o  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

But  do  ye  stir  up  your  mind  in  your  breasts,  and  shun 

unlawful   worship ;    serve   the  living   God :    keep  from 

adultery,  and  lust  which  confounds  the  use  of  nature : 

765  bring  up  thy  own  children  and  slay  them  not;  for  the 

Immortal  will  be  wroth  with  him  that  sins  in  these  things. 

And  then  shall  He  raise  up  His  kingdom  for  ever  over 
all  men,  He  who  once  gave  the  holy  law  to  the  godly,  to 

770  whom  He  promised  to  open  the  earth  and  the  world  and 
the  gates  of  the  blessed  with  all  joys,  with  a  deathless 
mind  and  everlasting  joy.  And  from  all  the  earth  men 
shall  bring  frankincense  and  offerings  to  the  temple  of 
the  high  God :  and  there  shall  be  no  other  temple 
among  men,  to  be  told  of  among  those  that  are  yet 

775  unborn,  save  that  which  God  gave  to  the  faithful  to 
honour;  [for  men  call  him  the  son  (or,  call  it  the 
sanctuary)  of  the  high  God].  All  the  paths  of  the  plain, 
and  the  rough  place  of  the  hills,  and  the  lofty  mountains, 
and  the  wild  waves  of  the  sea  shall  be  made  easy  for 

780  traveller  and  sailor  in  those  days ;  for  perfect  peace  and 
plenty  cometh  on  the  earth  :  and  the  prophets  of  the 
high  God  shall  take  away  the  sword,  for  they  are  the 
judges  of  men  and  their  righteous  kings ;  and  well- 
gotten  wealth  shall  abound  among  men :  for  this  is  the 
judgement  of  the  great  God,  and  His  rule. 

785  Rejoice,  O  daughter,  and  be  glad :  for  He  that  made 
heaven  and  earth  hath  given  thee  joy ;  and  He  shall 

771.  everlasting joy :  cf.  Isaiah  xxxv.  10. 

772.  Cf.  Isaiah  Ix.  6. 

776.  The  MSS.  have  the  line  vlbv  ykp  /caAeoutn  fiporol  fitydhoio 
Oeolo.  Emendations  such  as  va&v,  olKov,  have  been  proposed  ;  but 
the  line  may  be  a  Christian  gloss,  suggested  by  John  ii.  21. 

777  ff.  Cf.  Isaiah  xl.  4. 

785.  Cf.  Zech.  ix.  9,  Isaiah  xxxv.  i. 

786.  Isaiah  xxxv.  10. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  81 

dwell  in  thee,  and  thou  shalt  have  everlasting  light.    The 
wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  feed  together  on  the  mountains, 
the  leopard  shall  eat  grass  with  the  kid  :  the  bear  shall  790 
lie   down  with  the  fherds  of  calves,  f  and  the  devouring 
lion  shall  eat  chaff  at  the  stall  as  the  ox,  and  little  chil- 
dren shall  lead  them  with  a  halter,  for  He  shall  make  the 
wild  beast  harmless  (lit.  helpless)  upon  earth.     And  the 
babe  shall  lie  down  with  the  dragon  and  the  asp,  and  795 
shall  suffer  no  hurt :  for  the  hand  of  God  shall  be  on 
them. 

I  will  tell  thee  an  unerring  sign,  whereby  to  know 
when  the  end  of  all  things  shall  come  on  earth.  When 
by  night  in  the  starry  heaven  swords  are  seen  westward 
and  eastward,  then  shall  a  dust  fall  from  heaven  over  all  800 
jthe  earth  and  the  light  of  the  sun  shall  fail  from  heaven 
in  his  mid  course,  and  suddenly  the  moon-rays  shall 
shine  out  and  come  upon  the  earth ;  there  shall  be  a 
sign  of  dripping  of  blood  from  the  rocks ;  and  in  a  cloud  805 
ye  shall  see  a  warring  of  footmen  and  horse,  like  a  hunt- 
ing of  beasts,  in  the  likeness  of  a  mist ;  this  is  the  end 
of  war  (or,  of  all  things)  which  God  who  dwells  in  heaven 

787.  everlasting  light :  cf.  IV.  191. 

787  ff.  Cf.  Isaiah  xi.  6-9,  Apoc.  Bar.  73.  6. 

793.  harmless :  iri]p6v,  lit.  maimed  or  defective  ;  on  the  word  see 
Armitage  Robinson,  Ephesians^  271  f. 

798,  805.  Cf.  673  above,  2  Mace.  v.  2,  Jos.,  B.J.  VI.  288. 

800.  Cf.  Deut.  xxviii.  24. 

Soi.  Cf.  Joel.  ii.  10. 

802-4.  Cf.  IV.  (II.)  Esdr.  v.  4  f. 

805  (798—9).  These  portents  are  given  by  Josephus  as  occurring 
during  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  (B.J.  VI.  288,  298,  Niese),  cf.  Tac. 
Hist.  V.  1 3,  Luke  xx.  1 1  ;  in  2  Mace.  v.  2  f.  they  appear  in  con- 
nection with  Antiochus  Epiphanes'  second  inroad  into  Egypt ;  while 
Dio,  LXVI.  1 1 ,  in  his  account  of  the  great  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  says, 
"  magnus  numerus  hominum  naturam  excedentium,  quales  gigantes 
finguntur,  modo  in  monte,  modo  in  regione  circumiacente  .  .  . 
uagari  uersarique  in  acre  uisus  est." 
F 


82  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

is  bringing  to  pass ;  but  all  must  do  sacrifice  to  the  great 
King. 

These  things  do  I  shew  forth,  who  came  from  the  long 

810  walls  of  Assyrian  Babylon,  sent  in  frenzy  as  a  fire  into 
Hellas,  foretelling  to  all  mortals  the  manifold  wrath  of 
God  ...  so  that  I  utter  as  prophecy  the  riddles  of  God. 
And  in  Hellas  men  shall  name  me  from  a  country  which 
is  not  mine,  as  the  shameless  one  of  Erythrse ;  others 
shall  say  that  I  am  the  Sibyl  begotten  of  Circe  and 

815  Gnostos,  distraught  and  deceiving ;  but  when  all  things 
come  to  pass,  then  shall  ye  remember  me,  and  none 
shall  call  me  distraught,  who  am  a  prophetess  of  the 
high  God.  For  He  did  not  reveal  to  me  that  which  He 

820  shewed  before  to  my  forbears ;  but  that  which  was  in 
the  beginning  did  God  (or,  my  father)  tell  me,  and  all 
that  was  to  be  thereafter  did  God  put  in  my  mind ;  that 
so  I  should  foretell  things  that  were  to  be  before  they 
came  to  pass,  and  declare  them  to  men.  For  when  the 
world  was  covered  with  a  flood,  and  one  man  of  proved 

825  integrity  was  left  alone,  voyaging  on  the  waters  in  an  ark 
of  wood,  with  birds  and  beasts,  that  the  earth  might 
again  be  replenished :  his  (son's)  wife  was  I,  and  of  his 

809-29.  In  this  concluding  section  the  Sibyl  gives  an  account  of 
herself,  or  rather  four  accounts  blended  into  one.  She  is  (a)  the 
Babylonian  Sibyl  (809-11):  but  (6)  she  will  be  called  the  Ery- 
thraean, and  (c)  falsely  called  Circe's  daughter  (814-5) ;  whereas 
(d)  she  is  a  true  prophetess  and  the  daughter-in-law  of  Noah. 

From  Pausanias  X.  12,  9,  Ps.  Justin  Coh.  ad  Gr,  37,  Suidas  s.v. 
2,iBu\\a,  it  appears  that  the  Babylonian  or  Chaldsean  Sibyl  was 
"  the  daughter  of  Berosus  and  Erymanthe,  by  name  Sabbe  (or 
Sambethe)":  but  the  compiler  of  Sib.  III.  could  not  claim  to  be 
both  the  daughter  of  Berosus  and  the  daughter-in-law  of  Noah. 
Hence  it  may  be  supposed  that  Sib.  III.,  while  taking  over  809-11 
from  the  Babylonian  source,  has  omitted  some  such  line  as  BtjpuxTirov 
2a/3^r;  Bvyarrjp  fHjrpJii  5'Ep v/j.dv9i)s. 

815.  Gnostos:  Bleek  conjectured  Glaucus  ;  in  s£n.  VI.  36,  the 
priestess  who  escorts  ^Eneas  to  the  Sibyl  is  Deiphobe  Glauci. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  83 

blood,  to   whom  the  first  things   befell :    and  the  last 

things   were  all  revealed  ;    therefore  let   all   these  the 
words  of  my  mouth  be  counted  for  truth. 


BOOK    IV 

1—23.  Prelude. 

HEAR,  ye  people  of  proud  Asia  and  Europe,  all  the 
true  prophecies  which  I  shall  utter  with  honeyed  mouth 
from  our  shrine  ;  no  oracular  voice  am  I  of  false  Phoebus, 
whom  vain  men  called  a  god,  and  falsely  reckoned  as  a  5 
seer,  but  of  the  great  God,  not  fashioned  by  hands  of 
men  in  the  likeness  of  dumb  idols  graven  in  stone.  He 
hath  not  for  His  habitation  a  stone  dragged  into  a 
temple,  deaf  and  dumb,  a  bane  and  a  woe  to  mortals  ; 
but  one  which  may  not  be  seen  from  earth  nor  measured  10 
by  mortal  eyes,  nor  was  fashioned  by  mortal  hand  : 
He  who  beholdeth  all  things  together,  and  Himself  is 
seen  of  none  :  in  whose  hand  are  dark  night  and  day, 
the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  sea  where  go  the  fish,  the  je 
earth  and  the  rivers  and  unfailing  streams,  things  created 
for  life,  rain  giving  birth  to  the  fruit  of  the  field,  and  to 
trees,  the  vine  and  the  olive.  It  is  He  who  has  smitten 
through  my  mind  with  a  scourge,  that  I  should  declare 
unerringly  to  men  all  that  now  is  and  shall  be  hereafter 

4-5.  The  Jewish  Sibyl  attacks  her  pagan  rival,  who  claims  to  be 
inspired  by  Apollo  ;  cf.  Paus.  X.  12.  6,  aS'  tyd,  a  *cu/6oio  ffatyrftopis 
flfu  2i'/3uAA.a,  and  the  Erythraean  inscription  (Buresch,  in  Mitthei- 
lungen  des  K.  D.  arch.  Instituts,  Ath.Abt.,  XVII.  1902)  :  y  *oi£ou 


10  ff.  see  on  III.  n. 

16.  created  for  life  :  cf.  Ecclus.  xxxix.  25  ff.,  Zeller,  Phil,  der  Gr, 
III.  I.  272. 


84  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

20  from  the  first  generation  to  the  tenth  ;  for  He  shall  try 
every  word  as  He  brings  it  to  pass.  But  thou,  O  people, 
give  ear  in  all  things  to  the  Sibyl,  as  she  pours  forth  the 
stream  of  truth  from  holy  lips. 

24-48.  Righteousness  of  Judaism  :  doom  of  its  pagan 
despisers. 

2$  Happy  among  men  shall  they  be  upon  earth  who  love 
to  bless  the  great  God  before  taking  food  and  drink, 
trusting  in  the  ways  of  godliness  :  who  shall  turn  away 
their  eyes  from  every  temple  and  all  altars,  vain  structures 
of  stones  that  cannot  hear,  denied  with  the  blood  of 

30  living  things  and  sacrifices  of  four-footed  beasts  ;  and 
will  have  an  eye  to  the  glory  of  the  one  God,  doing  no 
presumptuous  deeds  of  blood  nor  trafficking  for  thievish 
gain  —  abominable  are  such  works  —  having  no  base 
desires  for  strange  women  [nor  for  defilement  with  men, 

35  loathly  and  hateful],  whose  ways  and  manners  and  piety 
other  men  will  not  follow,  so  shameless  is  their  desire, 
but  they  will  mock  at  them  with  scorn  and  laughter,  and 


20.  yfvff)  means  here,  as  in  47,  etc.,  an  age  or  period.  The 
Sibylline  tradition  followed  a  parallel  line  to  the  Hesiodic  division 
of  the  ages  according  to  metals  :  but  while  Hesiod  reckoned  five 
(cf.  the  four  ages  of  Daniel),  the  Sibylline  tradition  reckoned  ten  ; 
so  in  an  Erythraean  oracle  preserved  by  Phlegon  (see  Alex.  II.  120)  ; 
cf.  Juv.,  Sat.  xiii.  28,  nona  setas  agitur,  peioraque  tempora  ferri 
temporibus,  Verg.,  Eel.  iv.  46". 

This  tradition  is  closely  connected  with  the  "great  year"  of 
the  Stoics,  i.e.  that  which  is  completed  by  the  return  of  all  the  stars 
to  their  original  positions,  and  is  the  period  destined  to  end  with  the 
iKifbposffii  or  world-conflagration  :  after  this  all  history  repeats  itself: 
4  '  altera  erit  turn  Tiphys  "  (Verg.  Eel.  iv.).  The  Jewish  and  Christian 
Sibyllists,  while  rejecting  the  conception  of  "  the  great  return," 
retained  that  of  the  ten  ages:  cf.  Sib.  II.  15,  IV.  2O,  86,  VII.  97, 
VIII.  199. 

25.  to  bless  .  .  .  before  taking  food  :  the  Jewish  precept  of 
grace  before  food  and  drink  was  based  upon  Deut.  viii.  10.  References 
in  Schiirer,  II.  ii.  117  f. 

37.  scorn  :  refers  to  the  ridicule  poured  upon  Jewish  observances 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  85 

in  their  witlessness  will  miscall  them  fools — so  evil  and 
presumptuous  are  their  own  works.  Faithless  is  the  4° 
whole  race  of  men.  But  when  the  judgement  of  the 
world  and  of  mortals  shall  come  which  God  shall  make, 
judging  the  godly  and  ungodly  alike,  then  shall  He  send 
the  godless  away  into  darkness  [and  then  shall  they 
know  what  impiety  they  have  done],  but  the  godly  45 
shall  continue  upon  the  grain-giving  earth,  and  God  will 
give  them  breath  and  life  and  grace.  But  this  shall  all 
come  to  pass  in  the  tenth  generation ;  now  will  I  speak 
of  that  which  shall  be  from  the  first  generation. 

49-114.  World-kingdoms  from  Assyria  to  Hellas  (70), 
Macedonia  (88),  and  Rome  (102),  with  some  miscel- 
laneous oracles. 

First  the  Assyrians  shall  rule  over  all  mankind,  holding 
sway  and  rule  over  the  world  for  six  generations,  from  50 
the  day  when  in  the  wrath  of  the  God  of  heaven  He 
caused  a  flood   to  break   forth,  and   overwhelmed   the 
earth  with  its  cities  and  all  that  dwelt  therein. 

Them  the  Medes  shall  subdue,  and  hold  the  throne 
in  pride ;  two  generations  only  are  theirs,  in  which  these  55 
happenings  shall  be :  there  shall  be  dark  night  at  the 
midnoon  of  day ;  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the 
orb  of  the  moon,  and  the  earth  shall  be  shaken  with  the 
noise  of  a  great  earthquake,  and  lay  low  many  cities  and 
works  of  men,  and  islands  shall  rise  out  of  the  depths  of  60 
the  sea. 

by  Alexandrine  and  other  writers  from  Manetho  onwards ;  cf.  Schtirer, 
II.  ii.  291  ff.,  iii.  2496°. 

43.  darkness  .  .  .  fire:  cf.  i  Enoch  91.  15,  103.8,  and,  for  other 
references,  Bousset,  R.J.  266.  f. 

45-6.  The  life  of  the  righteous  is  to  be  a  long-continued  earthly 
existence;  cf.  187  infr.,  and  III.  619,  note. 


86  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

But  when  great  Euphrates  runs  high  with  blood,  then 
shall  the  dread  cry  of  war  be  raised  between  Mede  and 
Persian ;  the  Persians  shall  fall  beneath  the  spear  of  the 
65  Medes  and  fly  beyond  the  great  water  of  Tigris.  And 
the  Persian  power  shall  be  the  greatest  in  all  the  world, 
yet  for  them  is  appointed  but  one  generation  of  wealth 
and  rule. 

Then  shall  deeds  be  done  such  as  men  would  pray 

God  to   avert,    warfare  and  murder,  dissensions,  flight, 

70  burning  of  towers  and  overturning  of  cities,  when  proud 

Hellas  shall  sail  against  the  broad  Hellespont,  bringing 

grievous  doom  to  Phrygia  and  to  Asia. 

But  upon  Egypt  and  her  broad  plough-lands  of  wheat 
shall  come  dearth  and  lean  harvests  for  the  course  of 
75  twenty  years,  when  the  Nile  that  nurtures  the  blade  shall 
hide  elsewhere  beneath  the  earth  his  dark  water. 

From  Asia  a  king  shall  come,  lifting  up  a  mighty  sword, 
in  countless  ships,  walking  on  the  wet  ways  of  the  sea, 
and  cutting  through  a  high-peaked  mountain  in  his 
voyaging ;  him  trembling  Asia  shall  receive  back,  as  he 
flees  for  refuge  from  the  war. 

80  Sicily,  unhappy  isle,  a  great  river  of  fire  shall  burn  up, 
as  Etna  vomits  out  its  flame ;  and  Croton,  that  great 
city,  shall  fall  into  a  deep  abyss. 

Hellas  shall   have  strife;  raging  against  each   other 
they  shall  lay  low  many  cities,  and  many  lives  shall  they 
85  destroy  in   their   righting ;    but   the   strife   shall   be   of 
doubtful  issue  to  either  side. 

But  when  the  race  of  men  reaches  the  tenth  genera- 
tion, the  yoke  of  slavery,  with  fear,  shall  fall  upon  the 
Persians. 


76.  a  king :  i.  e.  Xerxes ;  for  his  canal  through  the  peninsula  ot 
Mount  Athos  see  licit.,  VII.  22-24. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  87 

But  when  the  Macedonians  hold  the  proud  sceptre, 
thereafter    shall     Thebes    suffer    misery   and    capture. 
Carians  shall  inhabit  Tyre,  and  the  Tyrians  shall  perish.  90 
Samos,    banks   of  sand  shall   cover   it   all,   and    Delos 
shall  no  more  answer  its  name,  but  be  wholly  deleted. 
Babylon,  great  to  behold  but  small  in  fight,  shall  stand 
fortified   with   hopes   that   profit   nothing.     Bactra  the 
Macedonians  shall  inhabit,  and  they  who  are  subject  to  95 
Bactra  and  Susa  shall  all  flee  into  the  land  of  Hellas. 

The  day  shall  yet  come,  when  Pyramus  with  his  silver 
stream  shall  throw  up  a  bar  of  sand  as  far  as  the  holy 
island.  fAnd  thou,  Baris,  shalt  fall,  and  Cyzicus,  when 
the  earth  is  violently  shaken,  and  cities  collapse.  Upon  100 
the  Rhodians  shall  come  the  last,  but  the  greatest 
evil. 

Neither  shall  Macedonia  keep  her  power ;  but  from 
the  west  a  great  war  shall  grow  up  against  her  from  Italy, 
whereby  the  whole  world  shall  be  made  subject,  enslaved 
under  the  yoke  of  the  sons  of  Italy. 

And  thou,  poor  Corinth,  shalt   see   the   day   of  thy  105 
capture.     Carthage,  thy  towers  too  shall  bow  the  knee 
to  the  ground. 

88-9.  Alexander  the  Great  captured  Thebes,  in  Bceotia,  massacred 
its  inhabitants,  and  destroyed  the  city,  in  335  B.C. 

91.  Delos  .  .  .  Samos :  cf.  III.  363. 

97-8.  This  is  an  ancient  oracle,  quoted  (but  not  assigned  to  any 
source)  by  the  geographer  Strabo  (I.  iii.  7,  ed.  Mtiller,  52). 

99 f.  Baris:  the  MSS.  have  «oJ  'ZuRapis  ;  «ai  <ru,  Bapts  is  Badt's 
emendation.  The  Asiatic  Baris  was  near  Cyzicus.  Pausanias  (II.  vii. 
l)  appears  to  refer  to  this  passage:  "the  same  earthquake  (which 
ruined  Sicyon)  injured  also  the  cities  of  Lycia  and  Caria,  and  the 
shock  was  felt  especially  in  the  island  of  Rhodes,  so  that  the 
Sibylline  oracle  touching  Rhodes  appeared  to  be  fulfilled."  The 
earthquake  cannot  be  dated.  Pausanias  does  not  say  (as  Gefifck. 
suggests)  that  it  happened  in  the  time  of  Demetrius,  302  B.C. : 
conjectures  range  from  A.D.  23  to  141.  See  Frazer's  note  ad  loc. 

105.  Fall  of  Corinth,  146  B.C. 

106.  Carthage  destroyed  by  Scipio,  146  B.C. 


88  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

Hapless  Laodicea,  thee  shall  an  earthquake  lay  low  in 
ruin,  but  them  shall  stand  again  as  a  city  with  foundations. 
Fair  Myra  of  Lycia,  never  shall  the  earth,  when  once  it 
no  is  shaken,  give  thee  firm  standing;  thou  shalt  fall  head- 
long to  the  ground,  and  pray  to  find  another  land  of 
refuge,  as  a  sojourner,  when  in  thunderings  and  earth- 
quake the  dark  water  of  the  sea  spreads  sand  f  over 
Patara,  for  their  godlessness. 

Thee  too,  Armenia,  oppression  and  slavery  awaits. 

115-139.  Rome  and  the  Jews  ;  Nero,  Titus,  eruption 
of  Vesuvius,  Nero's  return. 

115  To  the  men  of  Jerusalem  also  shall  come  an  evil 
storm-blast  of  war  from  Italy,  and  shall  lay  waste  the 
great  temple  of  God,  when  putting  their  trust  in  folly 
they  shall  cast  away  godliness  and  do  hateful  deeds  of 
blood  before  the  temple  ;  and  then  shall  a  great  king 

120  from  Italy  flee  away  like  a  deserter,  unseen,  unheard  of, 
beyond  the  ford  of  Euphrates,  after  he  has  polluted  his 
hands  with  the  hateful  murder  of  his  mother,  doing  f  the 

107.  cf.  III.  471.  This  corresponds  closely  with  Tacitus'  account 
of  the  earthquake  at  Laodicea  in  A.D.  60:  Tac.  Ann.  XIV.  27, 
Laodicea  tremore  terrse  prolapsa  .  .  .  propriis  opibus  revaluit. 

115.  the  men  of  Jerusalem :  the  word  used  is  "  the  Solymi,"  which 
was  the  name  of  a  Lycian  tribe  and  mountain  (Horn.  //.  vi.  184,  Od. 
V.  282) ;  a  natural  but  inaccurate  etymology  of  the  word  Hierosolytna 
suggested  the  use  of  the  adjective  "  Solymi "  for  the  Jews  :  and  this 
is  found  both  in  Greek  and  in  Latin,  cf.  Juv.  Sat.  vi.  544,  "  interpres 
legum  Solymarum." 

1 1 8.  hateful  deeds :  the  excesses  of  the  Zealots  during  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  :  Jos.  B.J.  IV.  iii.  I,  etc. 

119.  The   legend   of  Nero's   disappearance   and    return.      The 
significance  attached  to  the  return  (137  ff.)  is  not  very  clear  ;  cf.  V. 
I37-I54-     In  V.  361-385  Nero  is  the  arch-tyrant,  and  in  V.  33-4, 
214-227,  he  is  depicted  in  plain  colours  as  the  Antichrist. 

121.  murder  :  Nero  murdered  his  mother  Agrippina  in  59  A.D., 
Tac.  Ann,  XIV.  3-8,  Suet.  Nero,  34. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  89 

deed  with  wicked  hand.  And  many  round  his  throne 
shall  drench  the  soil  of  Rome  with  their  blood,  when  he 
has  fled  beyond  the  land  of  Parthia. 

To  Syria  shall   come  a   Roman  chieftain,  who  shall  125 
burn  with  fire  the  temple  of  Jerusalem,  slay  many  of  the 
Jews,  and  lay  in  ruin  that  great  land  of  broad  fields. 

Then  shall  an  earthquake  destroy  both  Salamis  and 
Paphos,  when  the  dark  water  shall  break  over  Cyprus, 
the  sea-girt  isle. 

But  when  from  a  cleft  in  the  earth,  in  the  land  of  Italy,  130 
a  flame  of  fire  shoots  out  its  light  to  the  broad  heaven, 
to  burn  up  many  cities  and  slay  their  men,  and  a  great 
cloud  of  fiery  ashes  shall  fill  the  air,  and  sparks  fiery  red 
shall  fall  from  heaven,  then  should  men  know  the  wrath  135 
of  the  God  of  heaven,  because  they  destroyed  the  blame- 
less people  of  the  godly.     Then  shall  come  to  the  west 
the  strife  of  war  stirred  up,  and  the  exiled  man  of 
Rome,  lifting  up  a  mighty  sword,  crossing  the  Euphrates 
with  many  tens  of  thousands. 

140—151.  Hellenic  oracles. 

Hapless  Antioch,  they  shall  no  more  call  thee  a  city,  140 
when  through  thy  foolishness  thou  fallest  beneath  the 
spear;    pestilence  shall  then  lay  waste   Syria,  and  the 
dread  cry  of  battle. 

123.  Conflicts  of  Galba,  Otho  and  Vitellius. 

125.  a  Roman  chieftain:  i.  e.  Vespasian. 

I28f.  an  earthquake :  cf.  143-4  infr.  Eus.,  Chron.  ed.  Schone,  II. 
188,  assigns  an  earthquake  in  Cyprus,  which  destroyed  three  cities, 
to  the  year  of  Abraham  2092,  i.  e.  A.D.  76. 

130  ff.  The  eruption  of  Vesuvius  and  destruction  of  Pompeii  and 
Herculaneum  in  A.D.  79;  Dio,  LXVI.  21-23,  PI"1-  Ep-  VI.  16. 
20. 

140.  According  to  Johannes  Malalas,  XVIII.  177,  this  oracle  was 
"  found"  and  quoted  in  Antioch  in  the  time  of  Justinian,  when  the 
pame  of  the  city  was  changed  to  Theopolis. 


90  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

Ah,  wretched  Cyprus,  thee  the  spreading  wave  of  the 

sea  shall  overwhelm,  and  the  fierce  storms  of  winter  shall 

drive  over  thee. 
145      Great  wealth  shall  come  to  Asia,  which  Rome  herself 

had  made  spoil  of,  and  had  stored  in  her  rich  houses ; 

twice   as  much  shall  she  then  repay  to  Asia,  and  war 

shall  restore  it  with  interest. 
150      The  citadels  of  the  Carians  by  the  waters  of  Maeander, 

all  the  fair  citadels  they  had  fortified,  bitter  famine  shall 

waste  them,  when  the  dark  water  of  Maeander  overwhelms 

them. 

152— end.  Judgement^  destruction  and  restoration. 

But  when  the  faith  of  godliness  has  perished  from 
among  men,  and  righteousness  is  no  more  seen  in  the 
155  world  .  .  .  and  living  in  unholy  deeds  they  deal 
violently,  doing  evil  with  presumption,  and  none  takes 
account  of  the  godly,  but  in  their  great  folly  and  un- 
wisdom they  destroy  them  all,  rejoicing  in  violence,  and 
staining  their  hands  in  blood ;  then  shall  they  know  that 
160  God  is  no  longer  merciful,  but  that  gnashing  His  teeth  in 
anger  He  will  destroy  the  whole  race  of  men  at  once 
with  a  great  burning. 

Wretched  mortals,  repent  ye  of  these  things,  and 
provoke  not  the  great  God  to  shew  all  His  anger ;  put 
away  your  swords,  the  slaying  of  men  with  groanings, 

145  ff.  A  partial  paraphrase  of  III.  350  ff. 

149  ff.  Perhaps  a  reference  to  the  same  disaster  as  that  in  107  ff. 
152 f.  This  is  the  "falling  away  "  of  2.  Thess.  ii.  3  ;  cf.  Matt.  xxiv. 
12,  Jude  18,  2  Tim.  iii.  I  ff.,  Sib.  V.  74. 

160.  no  longer  merciful:    cf.   2(4)   Esdr.   vii.   33,    "and   com- 
passion shall  pass  away,  and  pity  be  afar  off,  and  long-suffering 
withdrawn" ;  2  Baruch  85,  12,  I  Enoch  63.  8. 

161.  For  this  Sibyllist,  history  begins  with  the  Flood  and  ends  in 
the  Fire ;  cf.  2  Pet.  iii.  6-7  ;  and  for  the  fire  cf.  III.  54,  71  ff.,  V. 
155-161,  206-283,  274f.,  512-531. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  91 

and  your  deeds  of  violence,  wash  your  bodies  from  head  165 
to  foot  in  running  streams,  and  lift  up  your  hands  to 
heaven,  asking  forgiveness  for  the  deeds  done  aforetime, 
and  make  propitiation  with  gifts  for  your  impiety  ;  God 
will  give  repentance  and  will  not  destroy  :  He  will  cease 
from  His  anger,  if  ye  all  practice  godliness  in  your  minds,  170 
and  hold  it  precious.     But  if  ye  will  not  hearken  to  me 
in  your  folly,  but  love  impiety  and  give  no  good  hearing 
to  all  these  things,  there  shall  be  fire  over  the  whole  earth 
and  a  great  sign  of  a  sword  with  a  trumpet,  at  the  rising  of 
the  sun :  and  all  the  earth  shall  hear  loud  wailing  and  a  175 
mighty  noise.     It   shall  burn   up  the  whole  earth  and 
destroy  the  whole  race  of  men,  all  cities  and  rivers,  with 
the  sea :  and  it  shall  consume  all  things,  and  they  shall 
be  dust  of  fire. 

But  when  all  is  turned  to  dust  and  ashes,  and  God  180 
who  kindled  it  shall  put  to  sleep  the  mighty  fire,  God 
Himself  shall  clothe  the  bones  and  ashes  again  in  human 
shape,  and  re-make  men  as  they  were  before.  And  then 
shall  be  the  judgement,  in  which  God  himself  shall  judge 
the  world  again ;  all  that  sinned  in  godlessness,  over  185 

165.  Exhortation  to  accept  the  baptism  of  proselytes  :  a  baptism 
of  repentance,  Mark  i.  4,  Schurer  II.  ii.  319  ff. 

For  baptism  in  running  water  cf.  Didache  VII.  I,  0airriffa.Te  & 

vSttTl    £(OVTl. 

174.  a  trumpet :  cf.  Isaiah  xxvii.  13,  Ps.-Sol.  xi.  i,  ShemoneEsre 
(Palestinian version)  10,  Apoc.  Abr.  31,  Matt.  xxiv.  31,  atrumpetfor 
the  gathering  of  the  elect ;  I  Cor.  xv.  52,  I  Thess.  iv.  16,  for  the 
resurrection  ;  Sib.  VIII.  239,  for  the  judgement.  Also  Rev.  viii. 
2,  etc. 

179  ff.  The  picture  here  is  not  that  of  a  "  resurrection  of  the  just  " 
(as  in  Test.  XII.  Patr.,  cf.  Luke  xiv.  14,  xx.  36)  ;  nor,  as  in  Rev., 
that  of  a  general  resurrection  following  that  of  the  righteous :  hut 
as  in  2  Baruch  50.  51,  52.  85,  and  as  in  the  Similitudes  of  Enoch, 
51.  1-3,  an  universal  resurrection.  For  the  restoration  of  mankind 
after  its  destruction,  cf.  V.  230  :  and  for  the  re-constitution  of  men  in 
their  bodies  as  they  were,  2  Baruch  50.  2,  Sib.  II.  221  ff.  (Ezek. 
xxxvii.). 

185.  Ci.  43  supr.  Darkness  (Matt.  viii.  12,  etc.)  is  here  the  chiei 


92  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

them  shall  earth  be  heaped  to  cover  them,  dark  spaces 
of  Tartarus  and  Stygian  recesses  of  Gehenna.  But  all 
that  are  godly,  they  shall  live  again  on  the  earth,  and 
190  God  shall  give  them  breath  and  life  and  grace,  even  to 
the  godly;  and  all  shall  then  look  upon  themselves, 
beholding  the  sweet  light  of  a  sun  that  never  sets  ;  most 
blessed  shall  he  be  who  shall  live  to  see  that  time. 


BOOK   V 

1-5.  Roman  Emperors  down  to  Hadrian. 

Come,  hearken  to  the  woeful  tale  of  the  sons  of 
Latium.  Next  after  the  kings  of  Egypt,  who  perished, 
and  the  same  earth  swallowed  them  all,  and  after  the 
man  of  Pella,  beneath  whose  rule  the  whole  east  and 
the  opulent  west  were  brought,  whom  Babylon  showed 
as  he  was,  when  it  gave  him  back  a  corpse  to  Philip,  no 
son  of  Zeus  nor  Ammon,  as  he  was  falsely  called,  and 

element  in  the  punishment  of  the  wicked ;  cf.  Jude  13,  2(4) 
Esdr.  vii.  125,  I  Enoch  63.  6,  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  18,  Sib.  I.  1 17  ff. 
For  Tartarus  and  similar  uses  of  deck  chthonian  terms,  cf.  2  Pet. 
ii.  4,  Sib.  I.  iof.,  loiff.,  II.  302,  VII.  291-2,  362. 

189.  As  in  45  f.  supr.,  the  home  of  the  righteous  is  to  be  on  this 
earth  ;  so  also  in  the  chiliastic  pictures  of  VII.  169  ff.,  205  ff. 

191.  light:  cf.  III.  787,  VIII.  410,  $£>s  alwviov,  Enoch  58.  3, 
Ps. -Sol.  iii.  12  (Rev.  xxi.  23). 

192.  of.  III.  371. 

5.  the  man  of  Pella:  i.e.  Alexander  the  Great.  Pella  was  the 
capital  of  Macedonia. 

7.  no  son  of  Zeus.  Alexander,  it  is  asserted,  made  this  claim  for 
himself;  see  Curtius  Rufus,  Hist.  Alex.  Magn.  VIII.  v.  5,  "louis 
filium  non  dici  tantum  se  sed  etiam  credi  uolebat " :  cf.  Diod. 
Sic.  xvii.  51. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  93 

after  the  man  of  the  race  and  blood  of  Assaracus,  who 
came  from  Troy,  and  broke  through  the  raging  fire,  and  10 
after  many  kings  and  warlike  men,  and  after  the  babes 
whom  the  wolf  took  for  her  nurslings,  shall  come  a  king 
first  of  all,  the  first  letter  of  whose  name  shall  sum  twice 
ten ;  he  shall  prevail  greatly  in  war :  and  for  his  first 
sign  he  shall  have  the  number  ten;  so  that  after  him 
shall  rule  one  who  has  the  first  letter  as  his  initial;  15 
before  whom  Thrace  shall  cower  and  Sicily,  then  Mem- 
phis, Memphis  brought  low  by  the  fault  of  her  leaders, 
and  of  a  woman  undaunted,  who  fell  on  the  wave  (by  the 
spear  ?).    He  shall  give  laws  to  the  peoples  and  bring  all 
into  subjection,  and  after  a  long  time  shall  hand  on  his  20 
kingship  to  one  who  shall  have  the  number  three  hundred 
for  his  first  letter,  and  a  name  well  known  from  a  river, 
whose  sway  shall  reach  to  the  Persians  and  Babylon : 
and  he  shall  smite  the  Medes  with  the  spear.     Then 
shall  rule  one  whose  name-letter  is  the  number  three ; 
then  one  whose  initial  is  twenty :  he  shall  reach  the  25 
furthest  ebb  of  Ocean's  tide,  swiftly  travelling  f  with  his 

8.  a  man  of  the  race  .  .  .  of  Assaracus :  /Eneas.  Cf.  Verg. 
^£«.  I.  284  ;  II.  339,  664. 

12.  twice  ten :  =  K,  i.  e.  Caesar-  The  exegetical  device  so  largely 
current  in  Rabbinical  Judaism,  by  which  the  hidden  meanings  of 
the  Bible  were  extracted  by  means  of  the  numerical  significance 
of  letters  and  signs  (gematria  =  yfta^erpta.),  is  used  here,  as  in  Rev., 
for  the  construction  of  cryptic  names.  Lucian  noted  -this  as  a 
familiar  Sibylline  trick,  and  parodied  it  (Lucian,  Alexander  n). 

14.  ten:  =  I,  i.  e.  Julius. 

15.  the  first  letter :  =  A,  i.e.  Augustus. 

16.  Thrace  :  at  Philippi,  42  B.C. 

Sicily  =  in  the  overthrow  of  Sextus  Pompeius,  36  B.C. 

Memphis  :  in  the  downfall  of  Cleopatra,  30  B.C. 
21.  three  hundred:  =  T,  i.e.  Tiberius,  the  river  being  Tiber. 
There  is  no  historical  ground  for  what  is  said  here  about  the  Persians 
and  Babylon. 

24.  three :  =  G,  *.  e.  Gaius. 

25.  twenty :  —  K,  /.  e.  Claudius. 

26-7.  Refers  to  the  occupation  of  Britain. 


94  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

Ausonian  company.  Then  one  with  the  letter  fifty  shall 
be  king,  a  fell  dragon  breathing  out  grievous  war,  who 

30  shall  lift  his  hand  against  his  own  people  to  slay  them, 
and  shall  spread  confusion,  playing  the  athlete,  charioteer, 
assassin,  a  man  of  many  ill-deeds ;  he  shall  cut  through 
the  mountain  between  two  seas  and  stain  it  with  blood ; 
yet  he  shall  vanish  to  destruction  (?) ;  then  he  shall 
return,  making  himself  equal  to  God :  but  God  shall 
reveal  his  nothingness. 

35  Three  kings  after  him  shall  perish  at  each  other's 
hand;  then  shall  come  a  great  destroyer  of  the  godly, 
whom  the  number  seventy  plainly  shows.  His  son, 
revealed  by  the  number  three  hundred,  shall  take  away 
his  power.  After  him  shall  rule  a  devouring  j  tyrant, 

40  marked  by  the  letter  four,  and  then  a  venerable  man, 

28.  fifty :  =  N,  i.  e.  Nero. 

29.  war :  i.  e.  against  the  Jews. 

31.  On  Nero  as  athlete  and  charioteer,  see  Henderson,  Nero, 
p.  126  f.,  384. 

32.  the  mountain:  i.e.  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth;  cf.    138,  218. 
Nero  cut  the  first  sod  of  a  canal  through  the  isthmus  in  67  A.D.,  a 
task  which  "already  Demetrius  the  King,  Caesar,  and  Caligula  had 
planned  "  (Henderson,  Nero,  p.  386).    Six  thousand  Jewish  prisoners 
were  sent  by  Vespasian  to  help  ;  but  the  work  was  abandoned  when 
little  more  than  a  fifth  of  it  had  been  completed.     The  attitude  of 
contemporaries  to  the  plan  is  represented  in  218:  the  fates,  it  is 
hinted,   looked   unfavourably  on   the  scheme,  and   Apollonius   of 
Tyana  (Philostratus,   Vit.  Apoll.  iv.  24,  v.  7,  Nero  init.)  prophesied 
that  Nero  should  never  sail  through  the  isthmus. 

32.  stain  with  blood.     According  to  Dio,  LXIII.  16,  blood  gushed 
out  of  the  earth  as  soon  as  the  work  was  begun. 

34.  making  himself  equal  with  God:  cf.  Rev.  xii.  4,  6,  perhaps 
Mark  xiii.   14,   Didache  16,   /cal  r6rf  tparfifferai  &  KOff/j.oirXd.vos  ais 
uioy  0eoG ;  Hippolytus  de   Christo  et  Antichristo  53:   "and  when 
the  three  horns  are  cut  off,  he  will  begin  to  show  himself  as  God, 
as  Ezekiel  has  said  of  old"  (Ezek.  xxviii.  2). 

35.  three  kings:  i.  e.  Galba,  Otho  and  Vitellius. 

37.  seventy:  =  O,  i.e.  Vespasian  (Ovfffiraaiav^s).     Cf.  IV.    125 
ff. ;  XII.  99  ff. 

38.  three  hundred:  =  T,  i.  e.  Titus.     The  story  that  he  poisoned 
his  father  is  mentioned  in  Dio  Ixvi.  17. 

40.  four:  —  D,  i.e.  Domitian.     The  MSS.  TtQBos  n6pos  is  cor- 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  95 

by  number  fifty :  but  after  him  one  to  whom  falls  the 
initial  sign  three  hundred,  a  Celt,  ranging  the  mountains, 
but  hastening  to  the  clash  of  conflict  he  shall  not  escape 
an  unseemly  doom,  but  shall  fall ;  the  dust  of  a  strange  45 
land  shall  cover  him  in  death,  a  land  named  from  the 
Nemean  flower.  Following  him  a  silver-haired  king 
shall  reign :  his  name  is  that  of  a  sea ;  he  shall  be  a 
man  of  excellence  and  all  discernment.  Under  thy  sway, 
most  excellent  in  goodness,  dark-haired  |  lord,  and  under  50 
that  of  thy  branches  shall  this  empire  be,  all  thy  days. 
After  him  shall  three  kings  bear  rule  :  the  last  shall  come 
late  to  his  throne. 

52-114.   Oracles  on  Egypt. 
I   am  filled,  thrice  wretched   one,  with  woe   at   the 

rupt ;  could  the  reading  be  vipios  fj.epos  (cf.  Seii/os  otyis,  29  supr., 
andTert.  Apol.  v.,  "  Domitianus,  portio  Neronis  de  crudelitate  ")  ? 

41.  fifty:  =  N,  i.e.  Netva.  This  favourable  judgement  upon 
Nerva  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  mitigated  the  offensiveness  of  the 
temple-tax  which  Vespasian  and  Domitian  had  diverted  to  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  ("fisci  ludaici  calumnia  sublata" 
is  an  inscription  on  Jewish  coins  of  his  time),  and  lessened  the 
severity  of  Domitian's  law  against  proselytism. 

43.  three  hundred:  =  T,  i.e.  Trajan.  Trajan  was  a  Spaniard 
from  Bsetica,  not  a  Celt  ;  perhaps  the  Sibyllist  had  the  Celtiberi 
in  mind.  "Mountaineer  may  refer  to  Trajan's  exploits  in 
Armenia.  Trajan  died  at  Selinus :  and  selinon,  apium,  or  parsley 
is  the  "flower"  with  which  victors  were  crowned  at  the  Nemean 
games  ;  Juv.  Sat.  viii.  226,  Graiteque  apium  meruisse  coronae. 

47.  Hadrian  :  curiously  called  both  apyvp6i<pavos  (47)  and  Kvavo- 
Xairris  (49).  The  praise  of  Hadrian  in  these  lines,  coming  from  a 
Jew  of  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  i.  e.  after  the  revolt  of  Bar- 
Cochba  and  the  second  devastation  of  Jerusalem,  is  hard  to  under- 
stand. It  suggests  that  the  author  of  1-51,  who  is  wholly  different 
in  tone  and  temper  from  the  writer  or  writers  of  the  rest  of  Book  V. , 
had  his  own  reasons  for  wishing  to  speak  well  of  the  Antonines. 
Zahn  regards  1.  51  as  an  interpolation,  and  thinks  that  the  praise  of 
Hadrian  was  written  before  Bar-Cochba's  revolt,  at  a  time  when  the 
Jews  hoped  that  Hadrian  would  restore  the  temple  {Beresch.  JRabba, 
ed.  Wunsche,  307  f.). 

51.  three  kings:  Antoninus  Pius,  L.  Verus,  Marcus  Aurelius; 
the  last  came  late  to  his  throne,  i.  e.  did  not  attain  sole  sovereignty 
till  the  death  of  his  brother  Verus  in  169  A.D. 


96  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

thought  of  an  evil  doom  1 1,  the  sister  of  Isis],  even  the 
inspired  song  of  my  oracle.     First,  round  the  foundation 

55  of  thy  temple  sore-lamented  shall  maenads  rush,  and 
thou  shall  be  in  evil  hands  in  that  day  when  the  Nile 
shall  overflow  all  the  land  of  Egypt,  sixteen  cubits  deep, 
flooding  the  whole  land  and  overwhelming  f  men,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  land  and  the  glory  of  its  face  shall  be 
put  to  silence. 

60  Thou,  Memphis,  shalt  lament  sore  for  Egypt,  for  thou 
who  didst  once  rule  greatly  the  earth  shalt  be  made 
wretched,  so  that  the  God  who  delights  in  the  thunder 
shall  cry  from  heaven :  "  Thou,  mighty  Memphis,  who  of 

65  old  wast  high  in  pride  among  hapless  mortals,  thou  shalt 
weep  sore  for  thy  utter  misery,  so  that  the  eternal, 
immortal  God  in  the  clouds  shall  hear  it.  Where  now 
is  that  high  spirit  of  thine  among  men  ?  Inasmuch  as 
thou  didst  rage  against  my  servants  anointed  of  God, 

70  and  didst  stir  up  evil  against  the  good,  for  all  these 
things  thou  shalt  have  just  such  a  hard  nurse  f  in 
requital.  Thou  shalt  no  more  have  a  f  part  among  the 
blessed :  fallen  from  the  stars,  thou  shalt  not  ascend  into 
heaven." 

These  things  did  God  bid  me  proclaim  to  Egypt, 
against  the  last  time,  when  men  shall  be  utterly  evil. 

75  Yet  they  continue  in  their  wickedness  till  evil  befall 
them,  even  the  wrath  of  the  immortal  God  of  heaven 

53.  sister:  yvuffri] ;  on  the  word,  see  Alex.,  I.  ii.  202.  But 
that  a  Sibyl  so  hostile  to  Egyptian  religion  as  that  of  Book  V. 
should  give  herself  out  to  be  the  sister  of  Isis  is  very  strange. 
Geffck.  emends  to  TI<rt,  Oeov  yvuxry  :  and  certainly  a  vocative  is 
required  by  the  context. 

60-72.  This  passage  has  marks  of  a  late  date,  e.  g.  the  scansion 
PoTiffai  KO,\  avrov  in  62  :  and  the  word  Beoxpifffovs  in  68  suggests 
that  it  may  be  a  Christian  addition,  and  refer  to  the  persecution 
under  Severus. 

72.  Cf.  Isaiah  xiv.  12-13. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  97 

who  speaks  in  thunder,  and  they  worship  stocks  and 
stones  rather  than  God,  and  are  in  fear  of  many  diverse 
things  devoid  of  reason,  sense  and  hearing,  such  as  it 
is  unfitting  even  to  speak  of,  idols  each  and  all,  wrought  80 
by  the  hands  of  men.  For  men  took  for  themselves  as 
gods  the  creatures  of  their  own  labour  and  presumptuous 
imagining,  gods  of  wood  and  stone,  of  brass  and  gold 
and  silver,  vain,  lifeless,  deaf,  molten  in  the  fire :  these 
do  they  make,  and  in  these  do  they  vainly  trust.  85 

Thmuis  and  Xois,f  Athribis,  Koptos,  Abydos  f  (cities  ?) 
of  Heracles  and  Zeus  and  Hermes,  and  thou  Alexandria, 
famed  mother  of  (cities),  war  shall  not  leave  thee  .  .  . 
shalt  pay  for  thy  pride  and  all  thy  deeds.  Thou  shalt  90 
be  silent  for  a  long  age,  and  the  day  of  return  ...  no 
longer  shall  delicate  drink  flow  for  thee  ...  for  the 
Persian  shall  come  to  thy  fland  like  hail,  and  destroy 
thy  land  and  the  men  that  devise  evil,  with  blood  and  95 
death,  f .  .  .  a  mighty  foe  of  barbarous  mind,  a  man 
of  blood,  raging  wildly  round  thyf  wondrous  altars, 
coming  in  a  flood,  like  the  sand  of  the  sea,  hastening 
destruction  upon  thee ;  and  then,  thou  city  of  wealth, 

86-7.  Athribis,  Koptos,  Abydos :  Wilamowitz'  conjecture  for  the 
senseless  0\i^erai  Koirrerai  0ov\fj  of  the  MSS.  Thmuis,  Athribis 
and  Xois  are  cities  of  the  Delta  ;  Coptos  is  near  Thebes,  and  Abydos 
lower  down  the  Nile,  where  also  there  was  another  Athribis.  Of 
the  names  which  follow,  Mr.  H.  J.  Bell  of  the  British  Museum 
kindly  writes — "the  first  (Heracleopolis)  is  probably  the  city  and 
nome  of  that  name  which  lay  between  the  Fayum  (to  the  S.E.) 
and  the  Nile  ;  the  second  is  doubtless  Diospolis  Magna,  i,  e.  Thebes, 
and  the  third  Hermopolis  Magna.  the  modern  Ashmunaim.  .  .  . 
All  the  places  mentioned,  except  Thmuis  and  Coptos  occur  in  the 
remarkable  invocation  of  Isis  in  Grenfell  and  Hunt's  Oxyrhynchus 
Papyri,  XI.  1380,  as  seats  of  Isis-worship,  and  the  other  two  may 
have  occurred  in  the  missing  part." 

92  ff.  The  Persians  (Parthians)  and  their  king  will  ravage  Egypt, 
and  only  a  third  part  of  the  people  will  be  left.  But  the  scene 
changes  in  104,  and  the  Parthian  attack  is  there  upon  the  holy  land 
and  city,  as  in  I  Enoch  56.  7.  The  Parthian  king  is  an  Antichrist 
figure,  and  is  to  be  destroyed  by  the  Messiah — cf.  Rev.  ix.  16  ff. 
G 


98  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

thou  shalt  have  great  sorrow.     All  Asia  shall  fall  on  the 
ground  and  lament  for  the  gifts  of  beauty  from  thee 

100  wherewith  she  rejoiced  to  crown  herself. 

And  he  who  gained  rule  over  the  Persians  shall  war 
against  thy  land,  kill  all  thy  men  and  waste  all  thy 
livelihood,  so  that  but  the  third  part  shall  remain  for 
wretched  mortals.  From  the  west  he  shall  rush  in  on 

105  thee,  leaping  lightly,  to  besiege  and  make  desolate  all 
thy  land.  But  when  he  has  reached  the  height  of 
strength  and  grim  f  boldness,  he  shall  go  on  to  intend 
the  devastation  of  the  city  of  the  blessed.  And  then  a 
king  sent  from  God  against  him  shall  destroy  every  great 

no  monarch  and  all  mighty  men:  and  so  shall  justice  be 
done  upon  men  by  the  Immortal. 

Ah  woe,  my  poor  heart,  why  thus  dost  thou  urge  me 
on  to  declare  to  Egypt  her  misery  under  many  rulers  ? 
Go  thou  to  the  East,  to  the  witless  race  of  Persia,  and 
»how  to  them  that  which  is  near  at  hand  and  that  which 
is  to  be. 

115-136.   Oracles  of  uncertain  origin. 

115  The  stream  of  the  river  Euphrates  shall  lift  up  a  flood, 
and  shall  destroy  the  Persians,!  Iberians  and  the  Baby- 
lonians and  the  Massagetae  that  rejoice  in  war  and  trust 
in  their  bow.  All  Asia  as  far  as  the  isles  shall  be  burnt 
and  blaze  with  fire.  Pergamos,  once  noble,  shall  perish 

1 20  from  its  foundations,!  and  Pitane  shall  be  seen  utterly 
desolate  among  men.  All  Lesbos  shall  sink  in  the  deep 
abyss,  to  perish.  Smyrna  rolled  down  from  her  cliffs 
shall  lie  lamenting :  and  she  that  was  noble  and  renowned 
shall  be  destroyed.  The  men  of  Bithynia  shall  weep  to 

104.  from  the  west :  cf.  371  infr. ;  Dan.  viii.  5  ;  Rev.  xiii.  I. 
119.  from  its  foundations:  the  MSS.  have  Porpvtoi' ;  Alex,  con- 
jectured &a0 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  99 

see  their  land  in  ashes,  with  great  Syria  and  Phoenicia  125 
the  populous. 

Woe  to  thee,  Lycia,  for  the  ills  devised  against  thee 
by  the  sea,  which  shall  invade  thy  land  of  his  own  accord, 
and  with  a  dread  shaking  of  the  earth,  and  bitter  streams 
shall  overwhelm  the  spice-bearing  land  of  Lycia,  and 
that  which  bore  no  spices. 

Dread  wrath  shall  come  upon  Phrygia,  by  reason  of  130 
that  sorrow  for  the  sake  of  which  Rhea,  mother  of  Zeus, 
came  to  her  and  there  abode. 

The  sea  shall  destroy  the  race  of  Centaurs  f  and  a 
wild  people :  the  Thessalian  land  a  deep-eddying  river 
shall  ruin,  the  deep-flowing  Peneian  stream  shall  destroy  135 
the  shapes  of  wild  beasts  from  off  the  earth,  even  Epi- 
danus  shall  waste  to  the  earth  the  Lapithse  (and  ?)  their 
land :  Epidanus,  who  avows  that  once  he  begot  the 
bestial  race.| 

137-154.  Return  of  Nero. 

For  Hellas,  thrice-wretched,  shall  the  poets  make 
lament,  when  the  great  and  god-like  king  of  great  Rome 
breaks  through  the  ridge  of  the  Isthmus  :  he  whom  Zeus  140 
himself,  they  say,  begot,  and  lady  Hera;  one  who  shall 
make  honey-sweet  songs  with  a  voice  of  melody,  playing 
the  actor,  and  shall  slay  both  his  wretched  mother  and 
many  besides.  This  king,  terrible  and  shameless,  shall 
flee  from  Babylon,  hated  by  every  mortal  and  by  all  good 

126  ff.  According  to  Dio,  LXIII.  26,  Lycia  was  devastated  by  a 
tidal  wave  at  the  end  of  Nero's  reign. 

133-6.  The  text  here  is  utterly  confused  and  corrupt. 

138.  the  isthmus  :  see  on  52  supr. 

141  f.  On  Nero  as  actor  and  musician,   see  Henderson,  Nero, 

PP-  379  ff- 

143.  Babylon  :  =  Rome,  as  in  158  infr.,  III.  301  ;  I  Peter  v.  13  ; 
Rev.  xvii.  5,  etc.  See  Chase  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
s.v.  Babylon. 


ioo  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

145  men ;  because  he  slew  many,  and  laid  violent  hands 
upon  her  who  bare  him,  sinned  against  his  wives,  and 
was  made  of  villainy.  And  he  shall  come  to  the  Medes 
and  the  kings  of  the  Persians,  whom  first  he  desired, 
and  to  whom  he  brought  renown,  conspiring  with  those 
evil  men  against  a  hated  race  (or,  the  race  of  true  men) : 

150  who  seized  the  temple  built  by  God,  burnt  the  people  of 
the  country  that  went  up  to  it,  for  whom  I  sing  a  due 
lamentation;  for  when  he  appeared  the  whole  creation 
was  shaken,  kings  perished,  and  they  in  whose  hands 
the  power  remained  brought  ruin  on  the  great  city  and 
the  righteous  people. 

155-178.   The  downfall  of  "  Babylon  "-Rome. 

155  But  when  after  the  fourth  year  a  great  star  shines, 
which  shall  of  itself  destroy  the  whole  earth  f  •  •  .  and 
from  heaven  a  great  star  shall  fall  on  the  dread  ocean 

160  and  burn  up  the  deep  sea,  with  Babylon  itself  and  the 
land  of  Italy,  by  reason  of  which  many  of  the  Hebrews 
perished,  holy  and  faithful,  and  the  people  of  truth. 
Among  evil  men  thou    shalt  suffer  evil,   but  shalt 

165  remain  desolate  for  whole  ages  [om.  164],  loathing  the 
soil  of  thy  land :  because  thou  didst  seek  after  enchant- 
ments, adultery  was  in  thy  midst,  with  unlawful  inter- 
course with  boys,  thou  woman-hearted  city,  unrighteous, 
evil,  and  wretched  beyond  all.  Woe  to  thee,  thou  city 
of  the  Latin  land,  all  unclean,  thou  maenad  circled  with 

153.  they  in  whose  hands :  i.  e.  Vespasian  and  Titus. 

154.  the  great  city :  cf.  224infr.,  Rev.  xi.  8. 

155.  a  great  star:    cf.  Rev.  viii.    I  f.  ;    Sib.  III.  333-5  ;    VIII. 
191  ff. 

157.  The  MSS.  reading  avrol  irpSnov  tGrjicav  r  eiva\i<i>  riotrej- 
S&vi  yields  no  sense,  and  no  tolerable  emendation  has  been 
proposed. 

165.  enchantments  :  cf.  Isaiah  xlvii.  12. 

169,  173.    Cf.  Isaiah  xlvii.  8,  Rev.  xviii.  7. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  101 

vipers,  thou  shalt  sit  a  widow  on  thy  hills,  and  the  river  170 
Tiber  shall  bewail  thee,  his  consort,  with  thy  murderous 
heart  and  ungodly  mind.     Knowest  thou  not  the  power 
and  design  of  God  ?    But  thou  saidst  :  "  I  am  alone,  and 
none  shall  despoil  me."     Yet  now  shall  God  who  lives 
for  ever  destroy  both  thee  and  thine,  and  no  sign  of  thee  1  75 
shall  be  left  any  more  in  that  land,  nor  of  the  old  time 
when  the  great  God  brought  thee  to  honour.    Abide  thou 
alone,  thou  lawless  city  :  wrapt  in  burning  fire,  inhabit 
thou  in  Hades  the  gloomy  house  of  the  lawless. 

179-199.   Oracles  on  Egypt  and  Cyrene. 

Now  once  more,  O  Egypt,  do  I  bewail  thy  doom  ;  jgo 
Memphis,  thou  shall  be  chief  among  the  afflicted,  and 
thy  sinews  shall  be  smitten  through  ;  thy  pyramids  shall 
utter  a  bold  word  of  reproach.     Python,  f  once  rightly 
called  the  double  city,  be  thou  silent  for  ages,  that  thou 
mayest  cease  from  woe.     Thou  insolence,  storehouse  of  185 
woes,  lamentable1  maenad,  greatly  afflicted,  full  of  tears, 
thou  shalt  remain  a  widow  for  ever. 


1  80.  ir\T)x<^o'a  Tfvovras  :  the  expression  occurs  also  in  138,  518, 
and  is  a  slight  indication  that  the  same  hand  has  worked  through 
Book  V.  (from  52  onwards). 

182.  Tlvdcav  T]  TO  ira\ai  MITOSIS  /cArjfleura  5t/caia>r.  An  obscure  line. 
Wilamowitz  conjectured  UtiQ&=  Pithom  (Exod.  i.  li)  ;  but  Pithom 
was  in  Hellenistic  times  known  as  Heroopolis,  and  was  a  place  of 
no  importance.  Neither  nvduv  (oracular  city)  nor  $iiro\is  is  speci- 
ally applicable  to  Memphis.  Attempts  have  been  made  to  make 
the  words  refer  to  Thebes,  the  importance  of  which  would  justify 
its  being  mentioned  after  Memphis.  &liro\is  might  refer  to  the 
double  city,  East  and  West  Thebes  ;  but  UvQwv  remains  insoluble. 
The  chief  god  at  Thebes  was  Ammon,  and  Apollo-Horus  was  not 
specially  worshipped  there. 

184.  arrogance  :  perhaps  a  reminiscence  of  Isaiah  xxx.  7.  That 
an  Egyptian  city  is  so  addressed  tells  against  Geffcken  and  Wilamo- 
witz' view  that  in  288  ff.  vPpis  is  personified  as  a  kind  ot 
demon. 


io2  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

When  Barca  over  her  rags  puts  on  the  white  mantle 
may  I  not  be  there  to  see  the  day. 

O  Thebes,  where  is  thy  great  strength  ?     A  savage  foe 

190  shall  destroy  thy  people ;  and  thou,  wretched  city,  shall 
mourn  in  dark  raiment  and  desolation,  and  pay  a  recom- 
pense for  all  that  thou  hast  done  in  the  shamelessness  of 
thy  hearts :  and  men  shall  look  on  thy  lamentation, 
because  of  thy  lawless  deeds. 

Syene,  a  great  man  of  the  Ethiopians  shall  destroy  it. 

195  Thee,  Teuchira,  shall  the  dark-skinned  Indians  overcome, 
and  dwell  there.  Pentapolis,  thou  shalt  have  sorrow,! 
and  a  man  of  might  shall  destroy  thee.  Libya  the 
lamentable,  who  shall  declare  thy  doom  ?  Cyrene,  what 
mortal  shall  bewail  thy  misery?  Thou  shalt  not  cease 
from  wretched  wailing  until  the  time  of  thy  destruction. 

200  Round  the  Brygesf  and  the  wealthy  Gauls  (Galatians  (?)) 
shall  roar  an  ocean  filled  with  blood :  for  they  too 
did  evil  to  the  children  of  God,  when  the  Phoenician 
king  of  the  Sidonians  led  a  Gallican  host  from  Syria. 

1 88.  An  ancient  oracle  from  Cyrene,  retaining  correctly  the  Doric 
form  ytvot/j-av.  The  white  mantle  (icviriiffffiov)  is  the  burnous  of  the 
Libyan  warrior. 

194  ff.  Syene  =  Assouan  ;  Teuchira  =  the  Libyan  Tauchira,  after- 
wards Arsinoe  ;  Pentapolis  =  a  group  of  towns  near  Cyrene. 

200.  MSS.  PpvTffffft.  Geflfck.  adopts  Wilamowitz'  conjecture 
Ppvyefffft  (the  Bryges  were  a  Macedonian  tribe).  But  the  MSS. 
reading  was  understood  by  Procopius  (B.  G.,  I.  24,  372  D,  quoted 
by  Rzach),  to  mean  Britons  ;  and  the  passage  probably  refers  to  a 
portent  related  byDio,  LXII.  i,  namely,  that  in  A.D.  62  the  channel 
between  Gaul  and  Britain  ran  red  with  blood.  The  writer  connects 
the  Gauls  in  some  way  with  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  regards  the 
portent  as  a  sign  of  divine  displeasure  against  them. 

203-4.  The  allusion  is  entirely  obscure.  According  to  Alex., 
Vespisian  is  called  a  Phoenician  king  because  he  landed  at  Ptole- 
mais,  and  his  army  is  called  Gallic  because  Mucianus  sent  him  as 
a  reinforcement  the  Legio  III.  Gallica.  But  the  reinforcements 
referred  to  were  sent  to  Titus,  and  it  is  clear  from  Tac.  Hist. 
IV.  39,  V.  I,  that  the  legion  in  question  was  the  Legio  III. 
Cyrenaica :  III.  Gallica  was  elsewhere. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  103 

Thee   too,    Ravenna,   he   shall   slay,   and   lead   to   the  205 
slaughter. 

Be  afraid,  ye  Indians  and  high-hearted  Ethiopeans  : 
for  when  the  fiery  wheel  of  the  ecliptic  (?)...  and 
Capricorn  .  .  .  and  Taurus  among  the  Twins  encircles 
the  mid-heaven,  when  the  Virgin  ascending  and  the  Sun  210 
fastening  the  girdle  round  his  forehead  dominates  the 
wholef  firmament;  there  shall  be  a  great  conflagration 
from  the  sky,  falling  on  the  earth ;  and  in  the  warring 
stars  there  shall  be  a  new  portent,  so  that  the  whole  land 
of  Ethiopia  shall  perish  in  fire  and  groaning. 

214-227.  Return  of  Nero. 

And  thou  too,  Corinth,  bewail  thy  sad  overthrow;  for  215 
when  the  three  sisters  of  Destiny,  spinning  their  twisted 
thread,  have  brought  again  from  on  high  him  who  fled 
by  guile,  by  the  bank  of  the  isthmus,  till  all  behold  him, 
who  once  cut  through  the  rock  with  the  smiting  of  tools, 
then  shall  he  destroy  and  lay  waste  thy  land,  as  it  is 
ordained.      For  to  him  God  gave  power  to  do  deeds  220 
greater  than  all  kings  before  him  ;  first  with  a  sickle  he 
shall  tear  outf  the  roots  of  three  heads,  and  give  them 
to  others  to  feed  on,  so  that  they  shall  eat  the  flesh  of 
the  parents  of  the  unholy  king.f     For  upon  all  men  225 
bloodshed  and  terror  are  ordained,  by  reason  of  the  great 

The  Gauls  appear  as  enemies  of  the  Jews  in  2  Mace,  viii.  20. 

205.  Perhaps  an  exaggerated  reference  to  the  disturbances  at 
Ravenna  in  69  A.D.,  when  the  Roman  navy  went  over  from  Vitellius 
to  Vespasian. 

206  ff.  The  battle  of  the  stars  :  s;e  on  512  ff. 

216.  the  isthmus:  see  on  32  supr. 

22O  f.  Cf.  366  infr. 

222.  three  heads:  i.e.  the  Flavian  Caesars,  Vespasian,  Titus  and 
Domitian  (see  note  on  the  Nero-legend,  p.  38  above).  Hippolytus, 
however  (De  Christo  et  Antichristo,  52),  took  the  three  horns  to  be 
Egypt,  Ethiopia  and  Libya. 

ten  horns  :  i.  e.  the  Roman  Emperors  from  Julius  to  Vespasian. 


104  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

city  and  the  righteous  people,  the  people  who  shall  surely 
be  saved,  whom  the  providence  of  God  chose  out. 

230  O  thou  unstable,  perverse,  ill-fated,  beginning  and 
great  ending  of  affliction  for  men,  of  harm  to  things 
created,  and  their  destined  restoration,  insolent,  leader 
in  evil,  and  bane  of  men,  who  hath  ever  desired  thee, 
who  is  not  inly  wroth  at  thee  ?  In  thee  a  good  king, 

235  living  nobly,  was  cast  down  in  death.  Thou  hast  set  all 
in  disorder,  all  good  thou  hast  submerged  in  evil,  and 
through  thee  the  good  ordinances  (?)  of  the  world  have 
been  changed.  Charge  this  disorder  to  us,  if  thou  wilt :  f 
what  sayest  thou?  "I  will  persuade  thee,  and  iff 
in  aught  thou  blamest  me,  say  on."  Once  among  men 
was  diffused  the  bright  sunlight  of  the  concordant  rays 

'240  of  prophecy :  the  tongue  that  dropped  fair  honey  for  all 
mankind  to  drink  was  manifest  and  went  forward  and 
rose  in  kindness  upon  all.  Wherefore,  thou  who  art 
blind  in  counsel,  author  of  great  evils,  both  the  sword 
and  sorrow  shall  come  in  that  day.  The  beginning  and 

245  great  ending  of  woes  for  men,  of  harm  to  things  created 
and  their  destined  restoration,  hear  thou  a  bitter  ill- 
sounding  word,  thou  bane  of  men. 

247-255.   The  Restoration  of  the   City  and  Temple. 

But  when  the  Persian's  land  shall  cease  from  war, 
from  pestilence  and  groaning,  in  that  day  shall  be  raised 

228-246.  Usually  taken  as  a  Jewish  invective  against  Rome ;  but 
as  it  stands  now  it  may  well  be  Christian,  like  256-9.  The  "king" 
of  233  must  surely  be  our  Lord,  and  the  city  will  then  be  Jerusalem, 
as  in  Rev.  xi.  8.  The  appeal  to  prophecy  in  238-41  strongly  recalls 
John  v.  35 ;  and  the  difficult  line  237  reads  like  a  compressed 
' '  dialogus  adversus  ludasos." 

Geffck.,  who  takes  the  view  that  here  the  hatred  of  the  law 
(vfipis)  is  personified  (see  on  184),  gives  prosodical  reasons  for 
assigning  a  late  date  to  the  passage. 

247.  shall  cease  Jrom   war :    i.  e.  when  the   final  onset  oi  the 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  105 

up  the  race  of  the  Jews,  blessed  children  of  God  and 
heaven,  dwelling  in  the  middle  parts  of  earth  around  250 
the  city  of  God,  and  shall  build  up  a  great  wall  round 
about  as  far  as  Joppa,  lifting  it  high,  even  to  the  dark 
clouds.     The  trumpet  shall  no  more  be  blown,  sounding 
for  battle,  nor  shall   those  men  perish  at  the  hands  of 
a  raging  enemy,  but  they  shall  set  upf  an  eternal  trophy  255 
over  the  wicked. 


256-259.  A  Christian  Oracle :  the  return  of  the 
Crucified  Messiah. 

And  one  chief  man  shall  come  again  from  the  sky, 
who  stretched  forth  his  hands  upon  the  fruitful  tree, 
the  best  of  the  Hebrews,  who  once  shall  stay  the  sun 
in  its  course,  calling  upon  it  with  fair  speech  and 
holy  lips. 

Antichrist-kingdom  (Parthians,  as  in  93)  is  defeated.  Geffck. 
connects  this  with  the  peace  between  Rome  and  Parthia  under  the 
Flavian  Caesars  ;  but  the  reference  is  probably  rather  apocalyptic 
than  historical. 

251-2.  Cf.  424  f. 

253.  For  the  peace  of  the  new  age,  cf.  382  ff.,  HI.  649ft.,  IS1- 

257.  stretched  forth  :  Christ  is  the  second  Moses  (Exod.    xvii. 
12).      Cf.  VIII.  251,  ftp  MOHTT/S  tTviraxfe  irporeivas  &\fvas  ayvds. 

the  fruitful  tree :  the  expression,  which  recalls  many  parallels  in 
later  literature,  (e.g.  Venantius  Fortunatus  Carm.  II.  ii.  22,  crux 
fidelis  .  .  .  flore,  fruge  fertilis,  and  II.  19  fertilitate  potens  o  dulce 
et  nobile  lignum)  is  based  on  the  symbolism  of  the  tree  of  life 
as  a  type  of  the  Cross.  Cf.  Tert.,  Adv.  hid.  13,  et  lignum, 
inquit  (Joel  ii.  22),  attulit  fructum  suum,  non  illud  lignum  in 
paradiso  quod  mortem  dedit  protoplastis,  sed  lignum  passionis 
Christi,  etc.  ;  this  goes  back  at  least  as  far  as  Justin  Martyr  (Dial, 
c.  Try  ph.  86,  rb  ffravpudrjvai  TOVTOV  .  .  .  ffv/j.f)o\ov  6/xe  T°V  ^v\av 
rrjs  £&>'?*)•  See  Lightfoot  on  Ign.  Smyrn.  i.  The  symbolism  was 
soon  transformed  into  legend,  i.  e.  the  belief  that  a  slip  from  the 
tree  of  life  was  planted  on  Golgotha,  and  furnished  the  actual 
wood  of  the  Cross.  Cf.  Ev.  Nicod.  in  Thilo  Cod.  Apocr.,  I.  686. 

258.  stay  the  sun :  as  Jesus  the  son  of  Nun  had  done  (Josh.  x. 
12-13)  >  and  as  the  Antichrist  would  also  do,  Sib.  III.  65. 


106  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

260-285.  Blessings  of  the  chosen  People^  and  miseries  of 
the  heathen  in  the  coming  age. 

260  Vex  no  more  thy  soul  in  thy  breast,  thou  blessed  one,f 
thou  seed  of  God,  full  of  riches,  thou  only-beloved 
flower,  thou  good  light,  noble  protection,  .  .  .  Judaea, 
land  of  grace,  fair  city  of  inspired  song.  The  unclean 
foot  of  the  Greek  shall  no  more  walk  wantonly  in  thy 

265  land,  for  he  shall  have  in  his  heart  a  mind  to  share 
thy  laws :  but  the  sons  of  renown  shall  honour  thee,  and 
with  holy  singing  shall  set  the  table  with  sacrifice  of  all 
kinds  and  pious  prayers;  the  righteous  who  in  a  little 

270  oppression  endured  hardness  shall  have  f  prosperity 
greater  and  fairer  than  before :  f  but  the  wicked  who 
raised  their  voice  to  heaven  in  lawlessness  shall  cease 
from  speaking  one  to  another,  and  hide  themselves,  until 
the  world  be  changed. f  A  rain  of  burning  fire  shall  fall 

275  from  the  clouds  :  men  shall  no  more  reap  fair  fruit  from 
the  earth ;  all  shall  be  unsown,  un  ploughed,  till  men  take 
knowledge  of  Him  who  governs  all  things,  the  immortal 
eternal  God,  and  no  longer  pay  honour  to  things  that 
die,  nor  to  dogs  and  vultures,  such  as  Egypt  taught  them 

280  to  worship  with  foolish  mouths  and  vain  lips.  Only  the 
holy  land  of  the  godly  shall  bring  forth  all  her  fruit, 
honey  dripping  from  the  rock,  and  from  the  fountain 
ambrosial  milk  shall  flow  for  all  the  righteous ;  for  they 
set  their  hope  on  one  God,  the  Father,  who  alone  is 

285  above  all  gods,  and  great  was  their  piety  and  faith. 

260 ff.  For  the  whole  passage,  cf.  III.  573 ff. 
264.  Cf.  III.  734-5,  and  for  265,  III.  710  ff. 
269.  a  little  oppression :  cf.  Wisd.  iii.  5. 
273.  changed:  cf.  300  infr,  and  III.  638. 
276.  unsown:  see  on  III.  539. 
279.  Cf.  77  ff.  supr.,  III.  30. 
281.  Cf.  III.  261,  581. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  107 

286-297,  306-341.   Oracles  upon  Asia. 

But  what  is  this  that  my  mind  in  its  wisdom  bids  me 
utter  ?  Now  will  I  bewail  thee  bitterly,  wretched  Asia, 
and  the  race  of  the  lonians,  Carians,  and  wealthy 
Lydians.  Woe  to  thee,  Sardis,  woe  to  thee,  delightful 
Tralles,  woe  to  thee,  Laodicea,  fair  city :  ye  shall  be  290 
destroyed  with  earthquakes,  perish  and  be  turned  to 
dust.  And  to  dark  Asia  .  .  .  the  well-builded  temple 
of  Artemis  at  Ephesus  .  .  .  shall  fall  headlong  into  the 
dread  sea,  the  earth  quaking  and  opening,  as  a  ship  2ai 
is  overwhelmed  by  a  storm -wind.  Ephesus  shall  lie 
prone  by  her  shores,  weeping  and  lamenting,  and  seeking 
for  the  temple  that  stands  there  no  more. 

And  then  in  his  anger  the  immortal  God  who  dwells 
on  high  shall  hurl  from  the  sky  a  fiery  bolt  on  the  head 
of  the  unholy  :  and  summer  shall  change  to  winter  in  300 
that  day.    And  then  great  woe  f  shall  befall  mortal  men  : 
for  He  that  thunders  from  on  high  shall  destroy  all  the 
shameless,  with  thunderings  and  lightnings  and  burning 
thunderbolts  upon  his  enemies,  and  shall  make  an  end 
of  them  for  their  ungodliness,  so  that  the  corpses  shall  305 
lie  on  the  earth  more  countless  than  the  sand. 

289.  Cf.  III.  459. 

290.  Cf.  111.471,  IV.  107  ff. 

293  ff.  It  is  difficult  to  trace  any  disaster  at  Ephesus  corre- 
sponding to  these  lines  :  they  are  quoted,  apparently  as  a  fulfilled 
prophecy,  by  Clem.  Al.  Protr.  iv.  ;  and  it  is  conceivable  that  they 
may  have  been  inserted  here  with  reference  to  the  great  earth- 
quake of  A.D.  180,  while  it  is  also  possible  that  their  original 
composition  belongs  to  a  far  earlier  time,  for  Eus.,  Chron.  Ol.  198, 
includes  Ephesus  among  the  cities  ruined  in  the  great  earthquake 
mentioned  in  Tac.  Ann.  II.  47  (A.D.  17) ;  see  Lightfoot,  Colossians, 
p.  39  note. 

300.  Cf.  VIII.  215,  "when  God  shall,  change  the  seasons, 
making  winter  into  summer "  ;  perhaps  this  is  the  clue  to  the 
word  "change"  in  273  supr.  and  III.  639:  cf.  III.  88-90, 
IV.  (II.)  Esdr.  vii.  39  f.,  II.  Enoch  65.  7. 

305.  Cf.  Rev.  xx.  8. 


io8  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

For  Smyrna  shall  come,  lamenting  her  Lycurgus 
(?  shepherd),  to  the  gates  of  Ephesus,  (?)  yet  shall  she 
perish  all  the  more. 

Foolish   Cyme   with   her  oracular  streams   shall   fall 

310  into  the  hands  of  godless  men,  unrighteous  and  lawless, 

and  shall  no  longer  so  much  as  lift  up  her  voice  to 

heaven,  but  shall  lie  dead  beside  the  Cumaean  springs. 

And  then  shall  they  cry  out  together  in  expectation  of 

evil.     The   bad   men  of  Cumae,  that   shameless   tribe, 

shall  know  the  sign  upon  it  of  requital  for  its  deeds. 

315  Then  when  they  bewail  their  own  land  burnt  to  ashes, 

Lesbos  shall  be  destroyed  for  ever  by  Eridanus. 

Woe  to  thee,  Corcyra,  f  thou  fair  city,  cease  thy 
revelling :  Hierapolis,  whose  very  soil  is  wedded  to 
Pluto,  thou  shalt  have  the  place  of  thy  desire,  a  place 
320  of  many  tears,  when  thou  buriest  thyself  in  the  earth 
by  the  waters  of  Therm odon.  Tripolis,  clinging  to  thy 
rock  by  the  waters  of  Mseander,  the  wrathful  providence 

306-7.  The  MSS.  have  e&v  K\a.iovffa  Xvitovpy&v :  Alex,  con- 
jectured SdfjLopvov — Samornus  was  the  harbour  of  Smyrna.  The 
mention  of  Smyrna  as  going  to  Ephesus  for  sympathy  and  relief 
confirms  the  suggestion  made  above  that  the  disaster  of  180  A.D. 
is  here  referred  to,  for  .^Llius  Aristides  (ed.  Dindorf,  I.  p.  497) 
says  that  at  that  time  the  Ephesians  and  Smyrnaeans  nap'  aAA^Aous 

HOtOV    00pl>fioV/J.fVOl. 

308.  This  is  an  oracle  on  the  ^Eolic  Cyme.  The  words  foolish  and 
oracular  are  explained  by  the  fact  that  Cyme  had  a  reputation 
for  stupidity  and  also  a  temple  and  oracle  of  Apollo  ;  but  it  looks 
as  if  the  Jewish  Sibyllist  meant  the  lines  to  be  understood  of  the 
Italian  Cumse  and  the  Cumaean  Sibyl. 

317.  Corcyra:  so  the  MSS.  ;  Mendelssohn  suggested  Kl&vpa. 

318.  Hierapolis  suffered,   like   Laodicea  in   the   earthquake   01 
A.D.  60  (Tac.  Ann.  xiv.  27),  as  at  many  other  times. 

n\ovrwvi  p-iyfiffa.  is  a  certain  correction  for  the  MSS.  reading 
Tl\o$T(f :  it  refers  to  a  mephitic  chasm  at  Hierapolis  which  was 
called  Ploutonion  or  Charonion  ;  see  Ramsay  in  Hastings'  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,  s.v.  Hierapolis,  Lightfoot,  Colossians,  p.  12. 

320.    Thermodon:  a  bad  slip  for  Lycus. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  109 

of  God  shall  destroy  thee  utterly,  when  for  thy  portion 
the  waves  cover  thee  by  night  beneath  the  sand. 

May  I  never  choose  for  my  dwelling  the  land  that 
has  Phoebus  for  neighbour ;  a  bolt  from  above  shall  325 
destroy  Miletus,  the  luxurious  city,  for  that  she  chose 
the  guileful  song  of  Phcebus  and  (fshe  rejected?)  the 
studies  of  the  learned,  and  their  prudent  counsel.  Shew 
mercy,  thou  Father  of  all,  upon  the  fertile  and  fruitful 
land,  great  Judaea,  that  we  may  behold  thy  judgements. 
For  her  thou  didst  know  before  others  in  thy  grace,  330 
O  God,  that  she  might  be  known  to  all  men  as  the 
land  of  thy  favour,  and  that  they  should  consider  what 
privilege  God  has  given  her. 

I   long,    thrice   wretched,   to   see   the   works   of  the 
Thracians,  even  the  wall  from  sea  to  sea,  dragged  down  335 
to  the  dust  by  a  blast  of  air,  falling  like  a  river  into 
the  sea  f  where  the  cormorant  dives  for  fish-f 

Thou  poor  Hellespont,  the  son  of  Assyria  shall  bridge 
thee  one  day  :  Lysimache  f  the  strong  power  of  the 
Thracians  shall  devastate.  An  Egyptian  king  shall  sub- 
due Macedonia,  and  the  might  of  his  captains  shall 

324.  The  oracles  of  Asia  Minor  enjoyed  great  popularity  in  the 
first  and  still  more  in  the  second  century  A.D.  ;  that  the  Sibyl 
should  attack  them  is  very  natural.  Geffck.  interprets  324  as  a 
reference  to  the  tradition  (Paus.  x.  12.  5)  that  the  Erythraean  Sibyl 
"came  to  Claros  of  the  Colophonians "  (where  there  was  a  cele- 
brated oracle) ;  this  may  be  right,  but  Miletus'  choice  of  the  song 
of  Phoebus  can  only  refer  to  the  pride  of  the  Milesians  in  the 
neighbouring  oracle  of  Branchidse. 

333  ff.  Apparently  an  ancient  oracle  referring  to  the  wall  of 
Miltiades ;  cf.  Hdt.  VI.  36. 

336.  An  ancient  oracle  on  Xerxes, 

337.  sis  fff  Maxf5  QpyKiov  MSS. :   Wilamowitz  conjectured  \v<ri- 
tia.\T)v.     During  the  war  between  Rome  and  Philip  of  Macedon, 
A.D.    20x3-196,     "the    flourishing    Lysimachia    on    the    Thracian 
Chersonese  was  totally  destroyed  by  the   Thracians"  (Mommsen, 
History  of  Rome,  E.T.,  ii.  p.  246). 

338.  An  Egyptian  king  :  i.e.  Ptolemy  Keraunos,  280  B.C. 


no  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

340  break  the  power  of  the  barbarian  region.  Lydians  and 
Galatians,  Pamphylians  and  Pisidians  shall  wage  evil 
strife,  every  man  of  them  taking  arms. 

Thrice  wretched  Italy,  desolate  and  unwept,  thou 
shalt  await  destruction  by  a  grievous  stroke  in  a  fruitful 
land. 

344-360.  A  warning  of  the  coming  tribulation. 

One  day  shall  the  voice  of  God  be  heard  from  above 

345  throughout  the  broad  heaven  as  a  peal  of  thunder.  The 
rays  of  the  very  sun  shall  fail,  the  moon  shall  not  give 
her  bright  light,  in  the  time  of  the  end,  when  God  shall 
rule.  There  shall  be  thick  darkness  over  all  the  earth  : 

350  men  shall  be  blind,  and  evil  beasts  also  (?),  and  there 
shall  be  wailing,  that  day  shall  continue  for  a  long  time, 
so  that  men  shall  know  that  God  himself  is  king  and 
his  eye  is  over  all  things  from  heaven.  Then  will  He 
have  no  pity  upon  his  enemies,  who  make  sacrifice  of 

355  lambs  and  sheep,  of  herds  of  lowing  bulls,  of  great 
calves  with  gilded  horns,  to  lifeless  Hermse  and  gods 
of  stone.  But  follow  ye  the  law  of  wisdom  and  the 
glory  of  the  righteous  :  lest  haply  the  immortal  God  in 
his  anger  destroy  every  kind  and  tribe  of  living  men.f 

360  Ye  must  love  as  father  the  wise  God  who  lives  for  ever. 

361-385.  The  coming  of  Antichrist  (Nero):   the  great 
War,  and  the  peace  of  the  righteous. 

In  the  time  of  the  end,  and  the  last  days  of  the  moon, 
there  shall  be  a  mad,  world-wide  war,  treacherous  and 
guileful.  And  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  shall  come  the 

345-  Cf.  IV.  175. 

346  ff.  Cf.  480  ff. ;  Joel  ii.  10,  Ass.  Mos.  10.  5 

353.  no  pity  :  see  on  IV.  159. 

363  ff.  Cf.  IV.  137  ff.,  V.  28-34,  137  ff.  215  ff. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  in 

man  who  slew  his  mother,  a  fugitive,  pondering  piercing 
counsels  in  his  mind,  who  shall  subdue  all  the  earth  and  365 
hold  sway  over  all,  and  shall  be  more  prudent  in  counsel 
than  any  man  :  and  the  city  which  caused  him  to  fall,  he 
shall  capture  at  a  blow.      He  shall  slay  many  men  and 
mighty  kings,  and  burn  them  all  with  fire,  as  none  had 
done  before  him,  but  those  who  crouch  in  fear  he  shall  370 
raise  up  in  his  fury.      Great  war  shall  come  upon  men 
from  the  west,  and  blood  shall  flow  down  the  banks  into 
the  deep-eddying  rivers,     f  Wrath  shall  run  in  streams 
over  the  plain  of  Macedonia  .    .    .    f  bringing  help  of 
allies  to  him  from  the  west,  but  doom  to  the  king.    And  375 
then  a  wintry  blast  shall  blow  over  the  earth,  and  the 
plain  shall  be  filled  once  more  with  evil  war.     For  fire 
shall  rain  down  from  the  floor  of  heaven  upon  men,  and 
fire,  water,  thunderbolts,  gloom,  and  murk  in  the  sky, 
with  wasting  of  war  and  a  mist  of  slaughter  to  destroy  all  380 
kings  together  and  all  men  of  might.     Then  shall  the 
piteous  ruin  of  war  thus  have  an  end  :  none  shall  any 
more  make  war  with  sword  and  steel  and  spear ;   this 
shall  be  unlawful  henceforth.   And  the  people  of  wisdom, 
which  was  forsaken,  shall  have  peace,  having  made  trial  385 
of  calamity,  that  thereafter  they  might  have  joy. 

386-433.  Destruction  of  Rome :  vengeance  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Temple:  victory  of  the  Messiah,  and 
restoration  of  the  Holy  City. 

Ye  slayers  of  your  mother,  cease  from  your  bold  deeds 
of  evil,  ye  who  aforetime  contrived  lawless  intercourse 
with  boys  and  made  virgins,  once  pure,  to  ply  for  hire 
in  brothels,  with  outrage  and  ill-usage  and  shame  and 

371.  from  the  west :  cf.  104  supr. 

372.  Cf.  Rev.  xiv.  20,  i  Enoch  100.  3. 
382  ff.  Cf.  253  ff.,  431  ff.,  III.  649  ff. 


ii2  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

390  sorrow  .  .  .  Among  you  a  mother  would  have  intercourse 
with  her  son,  and  a  daughter  be  joined  as  in  wedlock 
with  her  father ;  among  you  kings  would  defile  their  lips 
with  impiety,  and  vile  men  would  even  contrive  inter- 
course with  beasts.  Keep  silence,  thou  fair  city  most 

395  lamentable,  full  of  revelry  ;  no  more  in  thee  shall  virgin 
priestesses  tend  the  sacred  flame  with  twigs  f  of  branch- 
ing wood ;  the  beloved  house  has  long  been  extinguished 
in  ruin  from  the  midst  of  thee,  in  that  day  when  I  saw 
the  temple  for  the  second  time  cast  down,  utterly  de- 

400  voured  with  fire  by  unholy  hands,  the  temple  that  had 
flourished  perpetually,  the  shrine  of  God's  observance, 
built  by  the  saints,  and  he  that  built  it  hoped  with  his 
whole  soul  and  body  that  it  should  endure  for  ever. 

For  these  men  pay  no  unthinking  reverence  to  a  god 
of  shapeless  earth,  nor  among  them  did  the  craftsman 

405  make  a  god  of  stone,  nor  was  there  a  worshipping  of 
adornments  of  gold  that  deceive  the  soul ;  but  they 
honoured  God,  the  great  father  of  all  to  whom  He  gives 
breath,  with  sacrifices  and  holy  hecatombs.  But  now 
there  came  up  against  it  an  inglorious  and  unholy  king, 

410  to  throw  down  the  holy  place  and  leave  it  a  ruin,  with  a 
great  host  and  men  of  renown  in  war.  Yet  he  perished, 
f  when  he  had  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  the  holy  landf  (or, 
by  the  hands  of  the  Immortal,  and  departed  from  the 
land) :  and  no  more  was  such  a  sign  wrought  among 
men,  so  that  men  might  think  that  another  than  he  had 
laid  waste  the  great  city. 

395~7-  The  temple  of  Vesta  was  destroyed  in  the  fire  of  Rome, 
A.D.  64. 

411.  The  meaning  is  that  Titus  came  to  such  a  speedy  end  that 
one  might  think  the  destruction  of  the  temple  not  to  be  his  work  at 
all.  That  Titus  died  very  suddenly  became  an  almost  mythical 
tradition  among  the  Jews ;  see  the  fantastic  story  in  Bereschith 
Rabba,  ed.  WUnsche,  p.  42. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  113 

For  from  the  billowy  clouds  of  heaven  there  came  a  415 
blessed  one,  a  man  holding  a  sceptre  in  his  hand,  which 
God  had  delivered  to  him,  and  he  triumphed  nobly  over 
all,  and  gave  back  to  all  the  good  that  wealth  which 
aforetime   men   had   taken  from  them.     He  took   and 
utterly  burnt  with  fire  the  cities  of  them  who  before  had 
done  evil,  and  the  city  which  God  loved  he  made  more  420 
bright  than  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  :  her  he  adorned, 
and  ...  he  made  a  holy  house  in  visible  shape  («Wap*ov), 
pure  and  beautiful ;  of  many  furlongs  he  made  it  in  mag- 
nitude, with  a  great  tower  reaching  to  the  very  clouds,  435 
visible  to  all  men,  that  all  the  faithful  and  the  righteous 
might  behold  the  glory  of  eternal  God,  and  the  shape  of 
His  desire.     Then  the  east  and  the  west  sang  of  the 
honour  of  God :  for  then  there  are  no  more  (terrors  f) 
for  hapless  mortals,  no  adultery  nor  lawless  lust  for  boys,  430 
no   murder   nor  noise   of  war,  no  contention   save  in 
righteousness.     It  is  the  last  time  of  the  saints,  when 
God  who  thunders  from  on  high,  founder  of  the  great 
temple,  brings  these  things  to  pass. 

434—446.  An  Oracle  on  Babylon. 

Woe  to  thee,  Babylon,  with  thy  throne  of  gold  and 
golden  sandals,  who  didst  reign  many  years  sole  mistress  435 
of  the  world,  who  wast  once  a  great  and  noble  city  :  no 
longer  shalt  thou  couch  on  the  mountains  of  gold  by  the 
river  Euphrates ;  thou  shalt  be  laid  low  by  the  shock  of 
an  earthquake :  the  dread  Parthians  put  thee  to  great 

423.  There  is  to  be  an  actual  and  material  (evtrapKos)  temple  in 
the  restored  city  ;  contrast  Rev.  xxi.  22  ;  Bousset,  R.  J.  226  f. 

4245.  Cf.  251  ff.  a  great  tower :  the  picture  is  clearly  modelled 
on  the  temple  of  Onias  rather  than  on  that  of  Solomon  or  Herod ; 
cf.  Jos.  B.  J.  VII.  427,  Niese :  "Onias  built  his  temple  not  like 
that  in  Jerusalem,  but  like  a  tower,  of  great  stones,  sixty  cubits 
high." 
II 


n4  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

suffering  (MS.  Kparetv,  caused  thee  to  hold  wide  sway). 

440  Keep  thy  lips  bridled,  thou  unholy  race  of  the  Chaldaeans : 
ask  not  nor  ponder  how  thou  mayst  rule  over  the  Persian 
and  vanquish  the  Mede ;  for  by  reason  of  thy  sway  which 
thou  didst  gain,  sending  as  hostages  to  Rome  those  who 
were  slaves  to  Asia,  therefore,  though  thou  didst  count 

445  thyself  a  queen  f  .  .  .  thou  shalt  come  to  be  judged  by 
thy  enemies,  by  reason  of  whom  thou  hast  sent  a  ransom,f 
and  for  thy  crooked  words  thou  shalt  give  a  bitter  accountf 
to  thy  enemies. 

447-475.  Miscellaneous  prophecies  of  destruction, 

In  the  last  time  the  sea  shall  be  dried  up,  and  ships 
shall  no  more  sail  to  Italy :  great  Asia  shall  be  one  ex- 

4^0  panse  of  water,  and  Crete  a  plain.  Cyprus  shall  have 
great  trouble,  and  Paphos  lament  her  great  doom,  so  that 
one  shall  see  Salamis  too,  the  great  city,  suffering  great 
affliction  ;  though  now  dry  land,  it  shall  be  a  sterile  sand 
on  the  shore.  .  .  .  Swarms  of  locusts  shall  devastate  the 

455  land  of  Cyprus.  Weep,  suffering  mortals,  when  ye  look 
on  Tyre.  Phcenice,  a  dread  wrath  awaits  thee,  even  to 
fall  in  evil  ruin,  so  that  the  very  Sirens  shall  bewail  thee 
with  sorrow. 

443.  Dio.,  LIV.  8,  I.  In  20  B.C.  Phraates,  dismayed  by  the 
threatening  activity  of  Augustus,  and  conscious  that  he  had  ignored 
all  his  treaty  obligations,  sent  back  the  Roman  prisoners  and 
standards  which  were  in  his  hands.  This  was  celebrated  by  Augustus 
as  a  real  victory,  with  sacrifices,  a  triumph,  and  the  dedication  of  a 
temple  to  Mars  Vindex.  See  Mommsen,  Provinces,  II.  28,  38, 
Res  Gesttz  Div.  Aiig.  V.  40,  and  pp.  I24ff. 

447.  the  sea:  cf.  Rev.  xxi.  i,  Ass.  Mos.  10,  6. 

450 f.  see  on  IV.  128. 

457.  sirens  :  the  sirens  appear  as  spirits  of  lamentation  in  Apoc. 
Bar.  x.  8 ;  aetpyvts  is  the  LXX  equivalent  for  "jackals"  in  Isaiah 
xiii.  22,  Micah  i.  8,  Ps.  xliv.  19  (Aquila). 

458  ff.  Refers  perhaps  to  the  troubles  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of 
Cleopatra,  and  the  subsequent  settlement. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  115 

And  in  the  fifth  generation,  when  the  destroying  of 
Egypt  has  ceased,  and  shameless  kings  have  made  a 
treaty :  and  the  peoples  of  Pamphylia  settle  in  Egypt,  460 
there  shall  be  in  Macedonia,  Asia,  and  Lycia  (Libya  ?)  a 
war  raging  over  the  world — and  the  dust  shall  be  drenched 
with  blood — which  a  king  of  Rome  and  rulers  of  the 
west  shall  cause  to  cease. 

When  the  blast  of  winter  drives  thick  with  snow,  and 
the  great  river  and  the  great  lakes  are  frozen,  then  a  465 
barbarous  people  shall  move  on  Asia  and  destroy  the 
fierce  people  of  Thrace,  that  strong  people.     Then  will 
men,  wasted  by  hunger,  feeding  on  things  forbidden,  f 
devour  their  parents   and   glut   themselves  with   offal. 
Wild  beast  will  snatch  food  out  of  every  house,  and  the  470 
very  birds  will  eat  the  flesh  of  men.     The  sea  shall  be 
filled  with  evil  things  from  the  rivers, f  and  shall  be  red 
with  the  flesh  and   blood  of   the  unwise.      Then  shall 
there  be  such  dearth  of  men  in  the  world  that  a  man  475 
could  count  up  both  men  and  women. 


476—483.   The  doom   of  the  evil  world,  and  the  hope  of 
the  godly. 

A  fearful  generation  shall  lament  very  sore,  at  the 
time  appointed  for  the  sun  to  set  and  rise  no  more, 
waiting  to  sink  in  the  waters  of  ocean ;  for  he  looked 
on  the  unholy  ways  of  many  sinful  men.  There  shall  480 
be  a  gloom  of  dread  darkness  over  the  broad  sky,  and 
a  thick  darkness  shall  once  more  cover  the  recesses  of 

464  ff.   One  may  connect  this  passage  with  the  inroad  of  the  Gauls 
into  Thrace  and  Asia  Minor  in  280  B.C. 

480.  Cf.  346  ff. 

481.  K6fffj.ov  irri/xa-     The  expression  is  found  also  in  235,  but 
evidently  in  a  different  sense. 


n6  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

the  earth  :  but  then  the  light  of  God  shall  give  guidance 
to  the  good,  to  all  who  sang  His  praises. 

484-503.  Doom  of  paganism  in  Egypt :    a   true  temple 
to  be  built  there. 

Isis,  wretched  goddess,  thou  shalt  be  left  solitary  by 

485  the  waters  of  Nile,  a  raving  f  maenad  by  the  sandy  shore 
of  Acheron,  and  no  memorial  shall  be  left  of  thee  in  all 
the  world.  And  thou,  Sarapis,  dwelling  on  thy  pile  of 
profitless  stones,  shall  lie  a  vast  ruin  in  the  midst  of 
wretched  Egypt.  And  all  in  Egypt  who  |  sought  unto 

490  thee  shall  bewail  thee  with  sorrow ;  but  they  f  whose 
mind  is  sound  in  them,  who  sang  the  praise  of  God, 
shall  know  that  thou  art  nothing. 

And  on  a  day  shall  a  white-robed  priest  speak  thus : 
"  Come,  let  us  set  up  in  beauty  the  true  temple  of  God ; 
come,  let  us  change  the  evil  custom  of  our  forefathers, 

495  through  which  in  their  foolishness  they  knew  not  that 
they  were  offering  rites  and  processions  to  gods  of  stone 
and  clay.  Let  us  turn  and  sing  praise  to  the  immortal 
God,  the  Father,  the  Eternal,  the  ruler  of  all,  the  true 

500  God  and  King,  the  Father  who  holdeth  our  soul  in  life, 
the  great  God  who  lives  for  ever."  And  then  shall  there 
be  in  Egypt  a  great  and  holy  temple,  and  the  people 

484.  Acheron  :  the  Acherusian  marsh,  near  Memphis. 

492.  a  white-robed  priest:  i.e.  a  linen-clad  priest  of  Isis  or 
Serapis ;  cf.  Ov.  Met.  I.  747,  Dea  linigera  colitur  celeberrima 
turba. 

493-5°°-  Cf-  HI.  7I6-73.1- 

501  ff.  The  passage  is  an  idealized  picture  based  on  Isaiah  xix.  ff. ; 
there  is  no  direct  reference  to  the  temple  of  Onias,  which  was 
closed  by  order  of  Vespasian  (Jos.  B.  J.  VII.  421-436,  Niese), 
an  event  of  which  one  would  have  expected  to  find  more  traces  in 
Or.  Sib.  ;  see  on  424  supr.  Yet  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  the 
closing  of  Onias'  temple  (it  was  not  destroyed)  was  not  in  the  back 
of  the  writer's  mind,  here  and  in  507  ff. 


THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES  117 

whom  God  hath  made  shall  bring  sacrifices  into  it,  and 
the  immortal  j  God  shall  grant  them  to  dwell  there. 

But  when  the  Ethiopians  come  from  the  shameless 
tribes  of  the  Triballi,  to  plough  j  the  fields  of  Egypt  as  505 
their  own,  they  shall  begin  to  do  evil,  that  the  latter 
things  may  come  to  pass.     For  they  will  destroy  the 
great   temple   of  the   land  of  Egypt;   and  God   shall 
rain  down  on  them  upon  the  earth  the  furiousness  of 
His  anger,  destroying  all  that  evil  and  lawless  people, 
and  there  shall  be  no  sparing  in  that  land,  because  they  510 
kept  not  that  which  God  had  delivered  to  them. 

512-531.   The  battle  of  the  Stars. 
I  beheld  the  menace  of  the  burning  sun  among  the 

505.  What  is  to  be  made  of  Ethiopians  who  come  from  Thrace 
(Triballi)?  From  III.  320,  512,  it  seems  that  they  are  to  be 
identified  with  Gog  and  Magog.  See  note  on  III.  319  ff. 

5i2ff.  Cf.  206-213  suPr-  Perhaps  the  germ  of  the  conception 
may  be  looked  for  in  Isaiah  xiii.  10,  Joel  ii.  IO,  etc.  ;  it  is  clearer 
in  Matt.  xiii.  25,  and  still  more  so  in  Rev.  vi.  13  ;  xii.  4,  etc.;  cf. 
also  2  Pet.  iii.  10.  In  I  Enoch  102.  2,  "the  luminaries  are 
affrighted "  in  the  day  of  judgment. 

But  it  is  to  Stoic  sources  that  we  must  look  for  the  origin  of  the 
picture  of  a  stellar  battle  as  part  of  the  ftcwvpoxris  ;  e.  g.  to  Seneca, 
Consol.  ad  Marciam,  XXVI.:  "etcum  tempus  advenerit  quo  se 
mundus  renovaturus  exstinguat ;  viribus  ista  se  suis  csedent,  et  sidera 
sideribus  incurrent,  et  omni  flagrante  materia  uno  igne  quidquid 
nunc  ex  disposito  lucet  ardebit ; "  and  Hercules  Furens,  944  ff. : 

' '  primus  en  !  noster  labor 
creli  refulget  parte  non  minima  Leo, 
iraque  totus  fervet  et  morsus  parat. 
lam  rapiet  aliquod  sidus  :  .  .   . 

.   .  .  quidquid  autuinnus  gravis 
hienesque  gelido  frigida  spatio  refert 
uno  impetu  transiliet  et  verni  petet 
frangetque  Tauri  colla." 

One  is  inclined  also  to  suggest  that  there  may  be  a  touch  of  Mithraism 
in  the  picture :  certainly  the  scorpion  creeping  under  the  tail  of 
the  lion  recalls  one  of  the  most  familiar  features  of  the  Mithraic 
monuments. 


n8  THE  SIBYLLINE  ORACLES 

stars,  and  the  dread  wrath  of  the  moon  in  her  bright 
shining ;  the  stars  were  in  travail  with  warfare,  and  God 

515  gave  the  word  for  battle.  Over  against  the  sun  great 
flames  made  combat,  and  the  horned  whirling  f  of  the 
moon  was  changed;  the  Day-Star  went  into  battle, 
mounting  on  the  back  of  the  Lion  :  Capricorn  smote  the 
neck-sinew  of  the  new-risen  Bull :  and  the  Bull  took 

520  from  Capricorn  his  day  of  return ;  and  Orion  put 
to  flight  the  Yoke,  it  could  not  abide  him ;  the  Virgin 
changed  the  fate  of  the  Twins,  in  the  Ram  :  the  Pleiad 
shone  no  more :  the  Dragon  refused  the  Girdle ;  the 
Fishes  swam  up  beneath  the  girdle  of  the  Lion ;  Cancer 

525  stayed  not  in  his  place,  for  fear  of  Orion ;  the  Scorpion 
crept  f  under  the  tail  of  the  Lion,  and  the  Dog  slipped 
away  from  the  flaming  of  the  Sun ;  Aquarius  was  burnt 
up  by  the  strength  of  the  mighty  Shiner.  Heaven  itself 
arose,  and  shook  off  the  warring  hosts ;  and  cast  them 

530  headlong  in  its  wrath  to  the  ground.  And  they, 
swiftly  smitten  down  upon  the  waters  or  Ocean,  set 
the  whole  earth  on  fire;  and  the  sky  stood  bare  of 
stars. 

530.  Cf.  Rev.  vi.  13,  Sib.,  III.  83,  and  Seneca,  Thyestcs  868-9, 

"monstraque  numquam  perfusa  mari 
raerget  condens  omnia  gurges." 


PKINTED  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  BY  RICHARD  CI.AY  &  SONS,  LIMITED, 
BRUNSWICK  ST.,  STAMFORD  ST.,  S.F..  1,  AND  BUNCAY,  SUFFOLK. 


TRANSLATIONS     OF 
EARLY  DOCUMENTS 

A   Series   of    texts   important  for    the   study   of 
Christian  origins,  by  various  authors 


UNDER    THE    JOINT    EDITORSHIP    OF 

The  Rev.  W.  O.  E.  OESTERLEY,  D.D. 

AND 

The  Rev.  CANON  G.  H.  BOX,  M.A. 


THE  object  of  the  Series  is  to  provide  short, 
cheap,  and  handy  text-books  for  students, 
either  working  by  themselves  or  in  classes.  The 
aim  is  to  furnish  in  translations  important  texts 
unencumbered  by  commentary  or  elaborate  notes, 
which  can  be  had  in  larger  works. 


FIRST   SERIES 

Palestinian-Jewish  and  Cognate  Texts 
(Pre-Rabbinic) 

1 .  Aramaic  Papyri.    A.  E.  Cowley,  Litt.D.,  Sub- 

Librarian  of  the  Bodleian  Library,  Oxford. 

2.  The   Wisdom   of    Ben-Sira    (Ecclesiasticus). 

The  Rev.  W.  O.  E.  Oesterley,  D.D., 
Vicar  of  St.  Alban's,  Bedford  Park,  W.  ; 
Examining  Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of 
London. 

3.  The   Book  of   Enoch.      The    Rev.    R.    H. 

Charles,  D.D.,  Canon  of  Westminster. 

4.  The    Book  of   Jubilees.      The    Rev.  Canon 

Charles. 

5.  The  Testaments  of    the  Twelve   Patriarchs. 

The  Rev.  Canon  Charles. 

6.  The    Odes  and   Psalms  of   Solomon.      The 

Rev.  G.  H.  Box,  M.A.,  Rector  of  Sutton, 
Beds.,  Hon.  Canon  of  St.  Albans. 

7.  The  Ascension  of  Isaiah.     The  Rev.  Canon 

Charles. 

8.  The  Apocalypse  of  Ezra  (ii.  Esdras).     The 

Rev.  Canon  Box. 

9.  The  Apocalypse  of  Baruch.    The  Rev.  Canon 

Charles. 

10.  The    Apocalypse    of    Abraham.     The    Rev. 

Canon  Box. 

1 1.  The  Testaments  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob. 

The  Rev.  Canon  Box  and  S.  Gazelee. 

12.  The  Assumption  of  Moses.     The  Rev.  W.  J. 

Ferrar,  M.A.,  Vicar  of  Holy  Trinity,  East 
Finchley. 


FIRST    SERIES— continued 

13.  The   Biblical   Antiquities   of    Philo.     M.  R. 

James,  Litt.D.,  F.B.A.,  Hon.  Litt.D., 
Dublin,  Hon.  LL.D.  St.  Andrews,  Provost 
of  King's  College,  Cambridge. 

14.  Lost    Apocrypha    of     the    Old   Testament. 

M.  R.  James,  Litt.D. 

Now  Ready—  Nos.  2,  3,  4,  5  and  8  7  and  10  (in  one  vol.), 
9  and  12  (in  one  vol.),  and  No.  13. 


SECOND    SERIES 
Hellenistic-Jewish  Texts 


1.  The  Wisdom   of    Solomon.      The   Rev.   Dr. 

Oesterley. 

2.  The    Sibylline   Oracles    (Books    iii— v).      The 

Rev.  H.  N.  Bate,  M.A.,  Vicar  of  Christ 
Church,  Lancaster  Gate,  W.  ;  Examining 
Chaplain  to  the  Bishop  of  London. 

3.  The  Letter  of  Aristeas.     H.  St.  John  Thack- 

eray, M.A.,  King's  College,  Cambridge. 

4.  Selections  from  Philo.     J.  H.  A.  Hart,  M.A. 

5.  Selections  from  Josephus.     H.  St.  J.  Thack- 

eray, M.A. 

6.  The  Third  and  Fourth  Books  of  Maccabees. 

The  Rev.  C.  W.  Emmet,  B.D.,  Vicar  of 
West  Hendred,  Oxon. 

7.  The  Book  of  Joseph  and  Asenath.    Translated 

and  edited  from  the  Syriac  text  (for  the  first 
time  in  English)  by  E.  W.  Brooks. 
Now  Ready—  Nos.  1,  2  and  3. 


THIRD    SERIES 

Palestinian-Jewish  and  Cognate  Texts 
(Rabbinic) 

*i.  Pirqe  Aboth.     The  Rev.  Dr.  Oesterley. 

*2.  Berakhoth.     The  Rev.  A.  Lukyn  Williams, 

D.D. 

*3.  Yoma.     The  Rev.  Canon  Box. 
*4.  Shabbath.     The  Rev.  Dr.  Oesterley. 
*5.  Sanhedrin.     Rev.  H.  Danby. 
*6.  Qimchi's  Commentary  on  the  Psalms  (Book 

I,  Selections).    The  Rev.  R.  G.  Finch,  B.D. 


7.  Tamid 

8.  Aboda  Zara 
Q.  Middoth 


10.  Sopherim     j   13.  Taanith 

11.  Megilla        !   14.  Megillath 

12.  Sukka  Taanith 


*  It  is  proposed  to  publish  these  texts  first  by  way  of 
experiment.  If  the  Series  should  so  far  prove  successful  the 
others  will  follow. 


Jewish  Literature  and  Christian  Origins  : 
Vol.  I.  The  Apocalyptic  Literature. 
„    II.  A  Short  Survey  of  the  Literature  of 

Rabbinical  Judaism. 
By  the  Revs.  Dr.  Oesterley  and  Canon  Box. 

Jewish  Uncanonical  Writings  :  A  popular  Intro- 
duction.    By  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Ferrar. 


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